There is a common trivia or crossword question of Charlie Chaplin’s last American film. The answer is Limelight, a 1952 film written, directed, and produced by Charlie Chaplin, who also starred in the lead role. Chaplin even composed the original music for the film and served as one of its choreographers and music processors.
In Limelights, Chaplin plays the character of Calvero, a Woodville entertainer who was once the king of the stage. Now, after many years, sick, abandoned, and forgotten, he drinks himself to oblivion in order to forget his insult, until Theresa (Claire Bloom), a young dancer, whose legs collapse beneath her for fear of success, enters his life. The two opposites – the ousted king and the young woman who is afraid of success, the old and young – help each other overcome their fears and even fall in love along the way.
Theresa says she wants to marry Calvero despite their age difference, however, she has befriended Neville (Sydney Earl Chaplin), a young composer who Calvero believes would be better suited to her. In order to give them a chance, Calvero leaves home and becomes a street entertainer. Terry, now starring in her own show, eventually finds Calvero and persuades him to return to the stage for a benefit concert.
At the end of the film, Calvero takes the stage for one last big show with his longtime partner (played by Buster Keaton). Calvero gives a triumphant comeback performance. He suffers a heart attack during the routine, but descending from the stage, dying, he asks to watch Theresa, who finally manages to dance, and dies. Calvero’s death is of course a symbol, for Chaplin himself, for his generation, and for the kind of art he represented.
Limelight is Charlie Chaplin’s last American film
The filming of the film took 55 days, and although it is set in London, it was entirely filmed in the Hollywood area, mostly at the Chaplin Studios. The street where Calvero lives was a redressed set at Paramount Studios, the music hall scenes were filmed at RKO-Pathé studios, and some exterior scenes use back-projected footage of London. Chaplin prominently featured members of his family in the film, including five of his children and his half-brother Wheeler Dryden.
Chaplin told his older sons he expected Limelight to be his last film. By all accounts, he was very happy and energized during production, a fact often attributed to the joy of recreating his early career in the music hall.
Chaplin decided to hold the world premiere of Limelight in London since it was the setting of the film. As he left Los Angeles, he expressed his plans to not be returning. In New York, he boarded the RMS Queen Elizabeth with his family on 18 September 1952. The next day, United States Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin’s re-entry permit and stated that he would have to submit to an interview concerning his political views and moral behavior to re-enter the US. Although McGranery told the press that he had “a pretty good case against Chaplin”, on the basis of the FBI files that were released in the 1980s, it seems that the US government had no real evidence to prevent Chaplin’s re-entry.
It is likely that he would have gained entry if he had applied for it. However, when Chaplin received a cablegram informing him of the news, he privately decided to cut his ties with the United States and said:
Whether I re-entered that unhappy country or not was of little consequence to me. I would like to have told them that the sooner I was rid of that hate-beleaguered atmosphere the better, that I was fed up of America’s insults and moral pomposity
After many years of living in Switzerland and the UK, Chaplin did return to America. In 1972, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award, as a sign that America “wanted to make amends”. Chaplin was initially hesitant about accepting but decided to return to the US for the first time in 20 years. The visit attracted a large amount of press coverage and, at the Academy Awards gala, he was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy’s history.
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