Limelight
Charlie Chaplin’s masterful drama about the twilight of a former vaudeville star is among the writer-director’s most touching films. Chaplin plays Calvero, a once beloved musical-comedy performer, now a washed-up alcoholic who lives in a small London flat. A glimmer of hope arrives when he meets a beautiful but melancholy ballerina (Claire Bloom) who lives downstairs. An elegant mix of the comic and the tragic, this poignant movie also features Buster Keaton in an extended cameo, marking the only time the two silent comedy icons appeared in a film together. Made at a time when Chaplin was under attack by the American press and far right, Limelight was scarcely distributed in the United States upon its initial release, but it is now considered one of his essential and most personal works.
Special Features
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Chaplin’s “Limelight”: Its Evolution and Intimacy, a new video essay by Charlie Chaplin biographer David Robinson
- New interviews with actors Claire Bloom and Norman Lloyd
- Chaplin Today: “Limelight,” a 2002 documentary on the film
- Archival audio recording of Chaplin reading two short excerpts from his novella Footlights
- Two short films by Chaplin: A Night in the Show (1915) and the uncompleted The Professor (1919)
- Outtake and two trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Peter von Bagh and excerpts from an on-set piece by journalist Henry Gris
New cover by Bill Nelson
Special Features
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Chaplin’s “Limelight”: Its Evolution and Intimacy, a new video essay by Charlie Chaplin biographer David Robinson
- New interviews with actors Claire Bloom and Norman Lloyd
- Chaplin Today: “Limelight,” a 2002 documentary on the film
- Archival audio recording of Chaplin reading two short excerpts from his novella Footlights
- Two short films by Chaplin: A Night in the Show (1915) and the uncompleted The Professor (1919)
- Outtake and two trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Peter von Bagh and excerpts from an on-set piece by journalist Henry Gris
New cover by Bill Nelson
Cast
- Charles Chaplin
- Calvero
- Claire Bloom
- Theresa
- Nigel Bruce
- Postant
- Buster Keaton
- Calvero’s partner
- Sydney Chaplin
- Neville
- Norman Lloyd
- Bodalink
- André Eglevsky
- Harlequin
- Melissa Hayden
- Columbine
- Marjorie Bennett
- Mrs. Alsop
- Wheeler Dryden
- Doctor/Clown
- Barry Bernard
- John Redfern
- Stapleton Kent
- Claudius
- Mollie Glessing
- Maid
- Leonard Mudi
- Calvero’s doctor
- Charles Chaplin Jr.
- Clown
- Loyal Underwood
- Street musicians
- Harry “Snub” Pollard
- Julian Ludwig
- Harry Crocker
- Music hall patrons
- Tim Durant
Credits
- Director
- Charles Chaplin
- Written by
- Charles Chaplin
- Producer
- Charles Chaplin
- Composer
- Charles Chaplin
- Musical arrangement
- Ray Rasch
- Musical arrangement
- Charles Chaplin
- Conductor
- Keith Williams
- Assistant producers
- Wheeler Dryden
- Assistant producers
- Jerome Epstein
- Assistant directors
- Robert Aldrich
- Assistant directors
- Jack Verne
- Director of photography
- Karl Struss
- Photographic consultant
- Roland Totheroh
- Art director
- Eugène Lourié
- Sound
- Hugh McDowell Jr.
- Production manager
- Lonnie D’Orsa
- Editor
- Joe Inge
- Costume design
- Riley Thorne
- Makeup
- Ted Larsen
- Hair
- Florence Avery
- Ballet choreographers
- André Eglevsky
- Ballet choreographers
- Melissa Hayden
- Ballet choreographers
- Charles Chaplin
- Corps de ballet
- Carmelita Maracci
- Still photographers
- George Hommel
- Still photographers
- W. Eugene Smith
