Limelight
All actors and roles (10)
All team (35)
Short description
Set in London shortly before the First World War, Limelight centres on Calvero, a once-celebrated music hall clown whose career and health are in decline. He rescues Terry, a young ballet dancer who has attempted suicide after illness ended her stage career, and takes her into his home. What begins as care turns into a deep bond: he encourages her to rebuild her confidence and return to dancing, while she offers him devotion he believes cannot become a lasting romance. Buster Keaton appears as Calvero's stage partner.
Charlie Chaplin directed, produced and wrote the film, the twentieth of the twenty-two features he directed, following Monsieur Verdoux and preceding A King in New York. Chaplin stars as Calvero, with Claire Bloom as Terry, Sydney Chaplin as Neville, Nigel Bruce as Postant and Norman Lloyd as Bodalink among a credited cast of seventy-one. The production was handled by United Artists and Celebrated Productions.
Released in October 1952, the film runs 137 minutes and mixes comedy and drama with music and romance. Its worldwide box office reached about one million dollars, a modest return for the period. Audiences rate it highly: 8 out of 10 on IMDb from around 24,000 votes and 7.9 out of 10 on TMDB from more than 600 votes. Critics' ratings, at 7.8 out of 10 from forty reviews, sit close to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was banned from screening in the United States until 1972.
- In the film, Chaplin cast practically all of his relatives. His son, Sydney Chaplin, played the musician Neville. Another son – Charles Chaplin Jr. – played a police officer in the pantomime. His children – Geraldine Chaplin, Michael, and Josephine – played children on the street. Even his stepbrother Wheeler Dryden (as the doctor) and his wife, Una O’Neil, received roles.
- "Limelight" is largely an autobiographical film by Chaplin. Chaplin depicts the days of his youth, when he worked as a music hall performer in London and lived in boarding houses. Chaplin's father, like Calvero, suffered from alcoholism and died at the age of 37. However, the prototype for Calvero was the comedian Frank Tinney, not Chaplin's father.
- In the scene where Calvero is having dinner while simultaneously conversing with Theresa Ambrose, he wipes his mouth with a napkin, rolls it up, and places it on the plate to his left. A minute later, the napkin is already lying on the table, next to his right hand.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
