Limelight (1952)

Interesting facts

• Box office: $8M
• Budget: $900K
• Earned 8.9× its budget
• Awards: 2 · Nominations: 1. Including: Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score; National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Limelight is a 1952 American 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.

Production

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.

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.

Fueled by the intense rivalry among fans of the two comics, a rumor has persisted 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 did not feel threatened by Keaton's performance, and even heavily edited his own footage of the duet while enhancing Keaton's.

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.

Limelight was one the first collaborations between Chaplin and Jerome Epstein, who would share a 30-year professional relationship and friendship. A movie executive counselled Epstein not to take a credit on Limelight, because it was made during the period in which Chaplin had become a target of McCarthyism.

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