A SILENT SMILE

Last night Big Bore and I took in a few old Charlie Chaplin silent movies on TV. The first one, CITY LIGHTS, circa 1931, was simply brilliant. Charlie's Little Tramp is taking his nightly stroll when he encounters a drunken millionaire about to commit suicide. He saves the man, who rewards his savior with his generous friendship---as long as he is soused. Every time he sobers up the next morning after a wild night of partying together, he is clueless about who the tramp is and has his staff boot him out of his mansion.

Ultimately kinder to the Little Tramp, but entrenched in poverty, is a pretty blind girl who sells flowers on a street corner. He becomes smitten with her and, pretending to be a millionaire by using his part-time friend's automobile and money, woos her. When her grandmother and she are about to become evicted from their apartment, he goes through hell and high water and a jail sentence to save the day. And there's even plenty of money left over from his hijinks to pay for surgery to restore her eyesight. Oh, happy day!

But here is where the Little Tramp's biggest problem begins. What will her reaction be when she sees that her kind benefactor is actually a poor, homely little street bum and not the actual millionaire beau she thought him to be? When "The End" came across the the TV screen, Big Bore and I, who had been laughing out loud throughout most of the movie, were wiping away the tears.

Besides writing, producing, directing, and acting in his silent movies, Charlie Chaplin also composed the music for them. Probably his most famous song is "Smile," the repeated melody in the other movie we saw last night, MODERN TIMES, a comedy/social commentary about economic depression and the struggle to perservere. I know you've heard this song before, and although Chaplin was not the lyricist, the words seems to mirror the spirit of the Little Tramp. "Smile, though your heart is aching. Smile, even though it's breaking....You'll find that life is still worthwhile, If you just smile." And that was the key to Charlie Chaplin's genius.