page_title: Limelight (1952 film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Limelight (1952 film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Publicity photo of Charlie Chaplin and Claire Bloom in Limelight.
context_page_description: Limelight is a 1952 comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, based on a novella by Chaplin titled Footlights. The score was composed by Chaplin and arranged by Ray Rasch.
  The film stars Chaplin as a washed-up comedian who saves a suicidal dancer, played by Claire Bloom, from killing herself, and both try to get through life; additional roles are provided by Nigel Bruce, Sydney Earl Chaplin, Wheeler Dryden, and Norman Lloyd, with an appearance from Buster Keaton. In dance scenes, Bloom is doubled by Melissa Hayden.
  Upon the film's release, critics' reception was divided; it was heavily boycotted in the United States and failed commercially. However, the film was re-released in the United States in 1972, which included its first screening in Los Angeles. This allowed the decades-old film to be in contention for the 45th Academy Awards where Chaplin won his only competitive Oscar. Today, the film is sometimes regarded as one of Chaplin's best and most personal works, and has attained a cult following.
context_section_description: Although the film is set in London, it was entirely filmed in the Hollywood area, mostly at the Chaplin Studios. The street where Calvero lives was a redressed set at Paramount Studios, the music hall scenes were filmed at RKO-Pathé studios, and some exterior scenes use back-projected footage of London. Filming took 55 days. Chaplin prominently featured members of his family in the film, including five of his children and his half-brother Wheeler Dryden. Chaplin chose stage actress Claire Bloom for the role of Terry, her first major film role. Chaplin told his older sons he expected Limelight to be his last film. By all accounts he was very happy and energized during production, a fact often attributed to the joy of recreating his early career in the Music Hall. Chaplin biographers have assumed that his character in the film was based on his father, Charles Chaplin, Sr., who had also lost his audience and became an alcoholic, which led to his death in 1901. In both his 1964 autobiography, and his 1974 book My Life in Pictures, however, Chaplin insists that Calvero is based on the life of stage actor Frank Tinney. Limelight was made during a time where Chaplin was starting to lose his audience, too; in many ways, the movie was highly autobiographical.
  The pairing of Chaplin and Buster Keaton in the final musical number is historic for being the only time the two performed together on film. Chaplin at first had not written the part for Keaton, because he believed that the role was too small. It was not until he learned that Keaton was going through hard times that Chaplin insisted Keaton be cast in the film: Before Limelight, Keaton had gone through a disastrous marriage, lost most of his fortune in the divorce process, and had appeared infrequently in films in the preceding years. A rumor has persisted, fueled by the intense rivalry among fans of the two comics, that Keaton gave such a superior performance that Chaplin jealously cut his scenes so he would not be upstaged by his rival. A close associate of Chaplin claimed that Chaplin not only did not feel threatened by Keaton's performance, but also heavily edited his own footage of the duet while enhancing Keaton's. According to Keaton's biographer Rudi Blesh, Chaplin eased his notoriously rigid directorial style to give Keaton free rein to invent his own comic business during this sequence. Keaton's widow Eleanor said that he was thrilled with his appearance in the film, and believed that his business partner Raymond Rohauer started and fueled the rumors. Chaplin's son Sydney, who also appeared in the film, said that even if some of Keaton's best scenes were cut, which he did not believe, the storyline would not logically allow a supporting actor to suddenly appear and upstage the climactic comeback of Chaplin's character.
  While filming was underway, Chaplin's friend and former publicist Harry Crocker invited a large number of reporters to the set to watch the actors work.
caption: Charlie Chaplin and Claire Bloom in Limelight
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