Charlie Chaplin City Lights film poster – 1931

Poster: Charlie Chaplin City Lights film poster – 1931

If you’re on this page you’ll probably know that Charlie Chaplin was an English actor, comedian and filmaker. His work spanned over 50 years between 1914 and 1967. During this period he had officially made 82 films. Of which, 36 for Keystone, 15 for Essanay, 12 with Mutual, 9 for First National and eight for United Artists Between 1910 and 1930 Chaplin was considered the most famous person on the planet.

This vintage film poster was created to promote the United Artists film City Lights in 1931. As with most of his films, this one was written, produced and directed by Chaplin and it was the first time Chaplin composed the musical score for one of his films.

Four years earlier, in 1927, the film industry had seen the release of  The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson. The film was notable for being the first feature-length motion picture with a synchronised recorded music score and lip-synched singing and speech. Its release heralded the commercial popularity of sound motion pictures which effectively marked the end of the silent film era. Chaplin’s 1928  feature film, The Circus,  was Chaplins last film before the motion picture industry embraced sound recording and brought the silent movie era to a close.

Despite the steady rise in popularity of sound films, Chaplin whether afraid to step out of his comfort zone or simply out of defiance, decided to continue to make the film as a silent motion picture. As his own producer, distributor  and part owner of United Artists, Chaplin could still conceive City Lights as a silent film. The film was technically a crossover, with synchronized music and sound effects but with the dialogue still being presented on intertitles.

In the film Chaplin, falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl, played by Virginia Cherrill. With her family in financial trouble The famous Tramp and an eccentric, alcoholic millionaire attempt to provide to the finances to help her medically

City Lights was immediately successful upon release on January 30, 1931, with positive reviews and worldwide rentals of more than $4 million. It is widely considered to be not only Charlie Chaplin’s best film, but also one of the greatest films ever made. The American Film Institue are in agreement because they ranked it 11th on its list of the best American films ever made in 2007.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as a fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and poster for just £22.