City Lights (1931)

A happy go lucky tramp (Charles Chaplin) meets a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) who lives in poverty with her grandmother (Florence Lee). She mistakes him for a millionaire and he does nothing to dissuade her and when she needs an operation, he goes to work to get the money. I'm not Chaplin's biggest fan and I can see why some are not taken with him. That being said, this is Chaplin's masterpiece and considered by many one of the greatest films of all time and I won't disagree with them. Indeed, the film is highly regarded by Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini, Woody Allen and Andrei Tarkovsky as one of the great films. This is Chaplin at his best, balancing pratfalls and pathos with equal dexterity. You may find yourself chuckling through out the movie but the film's final moments are among the most heartbreaking in all cinema. By 1931, talkies were in full force but Chaplin's insistence on making it a silent film didn't hurt the film at all as it was one of Chaplin's biggest hits. Even if Chaplin or silent cinema isn't your "thing", this should be mandatory viewing to anyone remotely interested in film. It's about as close to perfection as cinema gets. With Harry Myers as the drunken millionaire.