City Lights Charles Chaplin

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "City Lights: A Comedy Romance in Pantomime")

USA 1931

My favorite Charlie Chaplin feature (1931) -- his first sound picture, but not, properly speaking, his first talkie--is also probably the one on which he exercised the most patience and perfectionism, with almost two years of shooting, countless retakes, and a recasting of the female lead (with Georgia Hale, his female lead in The Gold Rush, eventually replaced by Virginia Cherrill, who was herself subsequently fired and rehired, as the blind flower-selling street waif who believes Chaplin’s Tramp is a millionaire). It’s also quite likely the Chaplin feature that can boast the best DVD extras, including one brilliant seven-minute gag sequence that Chaplin deleted because it interfered with the film’s overall architecture. Interestingly enough, and significantly, the tragic final sequence, in close-ups, rightly regarded as the most emotionally wrenching sequence in Chaplin’s career, is edited in such a way that it has glaring continuity errors, none of which matter in the slightest because of the power of his performance.

Excerpt from Jonathan Rosenbaum's article "30 Great Movies on DVD" located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: January 30th, 1931 - Los Angeles, California

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DVD Comparison:

Image Entertainment (oop) - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Warner - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Nick Wrigley of Masters of Cinema for the Region 2 PAL captures!

(Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Warner - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Image Entertainment / CBS Fox Region 0 - NTSC	Warner Region 2 - PAL
	NTSC (North America) - Individually from Warner: or in Warner Boxset Vol. 2 with City Lights / The Circus / The Kid / A King in New York / A Woman of Paris / Monsieur Verdoux / The Chaplin Revue / Charlie - The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin:

Runtime	1:27:03	1:22:40 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1.13 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 8.12 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	1.29:1 Pan and Scan Average Bitrate: ? PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Image
Bitrate: Warner	UNAVAILABLE at present
Audio	PCM English (Silent) (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) conducted by Carl Davis 1989, English (Silent) (Dolby Digital 1.0 Stereo) - Chaplin's Original Score	English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	None	English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Romanian, English for the hearing impaired, French for the hearing impaired, Italian for the hearing impaired and none - Extras is subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, German, Dutch and none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Image Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Picture Boxed - 1.13:1 Edition Details: • All Regions • Black & White, Dolby • Chaplin's own score in two version: the original 1931 mono soundtrack, or a new digitally-recorded PCM stereo version • An interview with composer-conductor Carl Davis, who reconstructed the score in honor of the Chaplin Centennial in 1989 • Bonus Material: Original story notes, production data & publicity items DVD Release Date: February 8, 2000 Snap Case Chapters 20	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Studio Aspect Ratio: Full Screen (Standard) - 1.29:1 Edition Details: • Introduction by David Robinson (discusses details of production) • Chaplin Today: City Lights - 1916 cartoon footage of the little tramp. • Documents * behind-the-scenes material * a screen test for Georgia Hale * short film "The Dream Prince", Chaplin rehearsing the boxing scene, * Winston Churchill visiting the set • Additional Extra Features Also on disc two are trailers, six image galleries, a poster gallery, and a selection of clips from all the films in "The Chaplin Collection". • Trailers DVD Release Date: September 22nd, 2003 Custom Case Keep Case Chapters 20

Comments:

I have been waiting to compare this disc as it is one of my favorite films of all time.

The Region 2 Boxset was overwhelmingly chosen as the DVD of the Year in our Poll located HERE, but in this instance the Image Entertainment Region 0 Disc has a strong advantage. The Warner DVD is cropped (it was originally show pillar-boxed NOT 1.33) and has PAL speedup. Contrast is better on the Warner but they appear equally as sharp. Well... what can we say. Extras go the way of the Warner, and I suspect the sound will as well, but the Image Entertainment disc does offer both the Carl Davis 1989 score and the original. The Warner does offer an inappropriate 5.1 version although this may be considered varying from the original presentation (although I'm sure it sounds great!).

The cropping is the unforgivable faux-pas by Warner. The Window-boxing (Pillar-boxing) was only around for a short period of time and it should be respected. It is a highly significant omission.

- Gary W. Tooze

Associated Reading (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)


Metropolis (Bfi Film Classics, 54) by Thomas Elsaesser	Movie Posters of the Silent Film Era To Color by Rex Schneider, Christopher Buchman	American Film Cycles: The Silent Era (Bibliographies and Indexes in the Performing Arts) by Larry Langman	Family Secrets: The Feature Films of D. W. Griffith by Michael Allen	Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema by Jeffrey Vance	The First Female Stars : Women of the Silent Era by David W. Menefee	Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses by Anthony Slide	The Silent Cinema Reader by Lee Grieveson, Peter Kramer

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(Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Warner - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

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