City Lights   1930   1931   1932   next   previous

City Lights Clippings 153/387

Motion Picture News, New York, November 22, 1930.

Los Angeles Theatre Restaurant, Los Angeles, undated,

Big Orange Landmarks, detail

„The present supremacy of the talkies“

Editorial content. „Studios Abused Music, Color,

      Critic Asserts

      Syracuse – Possible trend toward silents, in the wake

of City Lights, imminence of wide film, uncertainty

over color and musical films and the need to win back kid

patronage are discussed at length editorially by

Chester B. Bahn, veteran dramatic critic, writing in the

Syracuse Herald.“ (...)

      „Will Charles Spencer Chaplin‘s recently completed

City Lights so charm picturegoers with its silence that the present supremacy of the talkies will be menaced?“ (...)

      „Mr. Chaplin‘s experiment with silence on the screen

is most interesting. The comedian, past-master of the pantomimic

art, is gambling $1,500,000 that silent pictures may

be made as popular as talkies. City Lights, it may be noted, was

placed in production after Al Jolson‘s The Jazz Singer

had set a new fashion. For some months, Chaplin studied the

problem; his decision was to continue in his own way.“

      „Whatever fandom may decide, it would seem that these

two statements may be accepted without challenge.

First, there are many stories best told in pantomime. Secondly,

few actors have Mr. Chaplin‘s eloquence in that medium.“ (...)

     The world premiere of City Lights takes place in Los Angeles

      January 30, 1931 at the Los Angeles Theatre.

      Los Angeles Theatre, 615 South Broadway (between

      6th and 7th Streets), Los Angeles.

Redaktioneller Inhalt

     City Lights   1930   1931   1932   next   previous