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City Lights Clippings 175/387

Mollie Merrick, Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash., Jan. 31, 1931.

JUST ALONE IN THE CITY

      Charlie Chaplin in „City Lights“ (Los Angeles)

(...) Photo, Los Angeles Evening Express, Jan. 31, 1931

& Los Angeles Theatre, exterior by day, marquee

Now Playing Here World Premiere Charlie

Chaplin in „City Lights“ Also Big Stage

PresentatioN, Los Angeles, Feb. 1931, Discovering Chaplin

„City Streets is a bit different“

Editorial content. „Stars and Talkies of Hollywood.

      By Mollie Merrick.

      Special to The Spokesman-Review and North American

Newspaper Alliance. Copyright. 1931.

      Hollywood, Cal., Jan. 30. – The first silent picture

to be shown after two years of talk, Charlie Chaplin‘s City

Streets is one of the finest pieces of work this comedian has

ever done and one of the best evening‘s entertainment

you could imagine.

      Some 50 persons, who pre-viewed the picture last

evening, sat rigid for the first few moments waiting for the

absence of talk to shock them. After a bit they relaxed

and sat back to laugh and cry with the funny little man who has

brought pantomime to its highest art. Talk was forgotten.

The years of dialogue might never have been. As the reels unfurled

one realized that here is a medium which Chaplin fills

in highest perfection and he is a thoroughgoing artist in recognizing

that fact and adhering to his medium.

      City Streets is a bit different from any other Chaplin film

I have ever seen. There is more satire in it and greater

depth of subtlety than his previous pictures have shown. This

was to be expected, for the Chaplin characterization

has been deepening through the years.

      Talkies are satirized in the opening reel of City Streets.

The picture, with music and sound effects throughout,

opens with the unveiling of a big public monument. The mayor

of the city – the somewhat desiccated lady who unveils

the statue and the microphone announcer are the only voices

one hears in the entire picture. But they are meaningless

sound only – a slap not only at talkies in particular but at public

speeches in general, of which we usually get merely

an unintelligible Ohoclaw.“ (...)

      City Streets is a film directed by Rouben Mamoulian.

      The title of Charles Chaplin‘s film is City Lights.

      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.

      City Lights opens in New York February 6, 1931

      at the Cohan Theatre.

      George M. Cohan Theatre, 1482 Broadway (between

      42nd and 43rd Streets), New York.

Redaktioneller Inhalt

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