The story as it is told
By 1929 every studio in Hollywood was hurrying to put sound on its pictures. Charlie Chaplin dug in. His next film would be silent, completely silent, the story goes, a stubborn stand against the talkies, and he would make it exactly his way.
And exactly his way meant exact. Chaplin, so the legend says, shot the scene where the Tramp first meets the blind flower girl again and again, hundreds of times, until the one small moment of a flower held out to a stranger was right. The retake counts quoted online are given to the digit, and they are enormous.
What we can confirm
The film is not completely silent. It has no spoken dialogue, but it does have a synchronized score and sound effects, including the scene where the Tramp swallows a whistle (Vance). The retake counts quoted online are precise; the NFR essay says only "hundreds."
By 1929 Hollywood had largely gone over to sound. Chaplin hadn't. In the Library of Congress National Film Registry essay on City Lights, film historian Jeffrey Vance describes how the technical failures of early talkies, and Chaplin's unwillingness to give up the universality of the Tramp, led him to start his next film as a silent. Chaplin himself put it this way in his 1964 autobiography, as quoted by Vance: "I did not wish to be the only adherent of the art of silent pictures… Nevertheless, 'City Lights' was an ideal silent picture, and nothing could deter me from making it." His one concession to sound was a recorded score of his own and synchronized sound effects.
The story is simple. The Tramp falls for a blind flower girl who takes him for a rich man, and he befriends a millionaire who treats him lavishly when drunk and forgets him when sober. Vance writes that the film took two years to make. Chaplin was anxious about the talkies, grieving the death of his mother and obsessive about simplicity.
Casting the flower girl was its own ordeal. Vance writes that Chaplin noticed Virginia Cherrill, then 20, when both sat ringside at a boxing match at the Hollywood Legion Stadium, and that the way she coped with her near-sightedness won her the part. The first-meeting scene, in which she offers the Tramp a flower, was retaken hundreds of times. Vance reports that it still holds the Guinness World Record for most retakes of a single scene. Chaplin would stop a take if she held the flower wrong or spoke the line "Flower, sir?" incorrectly, though no audience would ever hear it.
The premiere on January 30, 1931 at the new Los Angeles Theatre became an event. Vance describes a crowd of more than 25,000 that nearly caused a riot, with Professor and Mrs. Albert Einstein as Chaplin's personal guests. The registration in the Catalog of Copyright Entries gives a copyright date of February 1, 1931, two days later, which is the date that matters for the term.
The gamble paid. Vance gives Chaplin's negative cost as $1,607,351.63 and a worldwide profit of $5 million ($2 million domestic, $3 million foreign). When the film was reissued in 1950, Life called it "the best movie of 1950." James Agee wrote that the final recognition scene, where the cured flower girl knows the Tramp by the touch of his hand, was "the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies."
Chaplin kept tight control of his films. The 1958 renewal in the CCE is in his own name as author (R217556), which is why the 1931 film reaches the end of its 95-year term on Dec 31, 2026. What enters the public domain is the 1931 film. Chaplin's later reissue versions, any separately registered music, the Chaplin estate's trademarks and Chaplin's likeness in advertising are separate questions.
The facts
- Two years in production; Chaplin's 1964 autobiography quote; his own score and sound effects as the only concession to sound; Cherrill, 20, spotted ringside at the Hollywood Legion Stadium; first-meeting scene retaken hundreds of times (Guinness record per Vance); premiere Jan 30, 1931, Los Angeles Theatre, 25,000+ crowd, the Einsteins as guests; negative cost $1,607,351.63; worldwide profit $5 million; Life's 1950 praise; Agee quote. Jeffrey Vance, LoC NFR essay, local copy (loc.gov National Film Preservation Board essay PDF)