Charlie Chaplin’s Boxing Scene in City Lights (1931)

The following boxing scene is the championship fight from Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights (1931), which was directed by and starring Chaplin with Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Harry Myers, and Al Ernest Garcia costarring. City Lights is the third of three movies that Chaplin would produce about boxing, with it being preceded by The Knockout (1914) and The Champion (1915). Even though sound existed, it was a silent production because Chaplin began working on the script many years before. It was wildly successful and many consider it to be the best of his career, and is considered one of the best films ever made. In it, Chaplin’s character, a resilient tramp, falls in love with a blind flower girl and tries to make money for her and her family in any way possible to avoid eviction. The following scenes is him trying his hand at making money in boxing.

At the start of the fight, the film makes it clearly known that Chaplin’s character is out of place in the ring by having him enter shirtless with his hat still on. He then comically adds to this awkwardness by walking over the opponents, shaking all of their hands, and tipping his hat to them. Both sides exaggerate their facial expressions to demonstrate the comedy of the situation, with Charlie showing his naivety with his kind smile and the opponents expressing their confusion with raised eyebrows. Then, once the fighting actually starts, Chaplin continues to drive home the point that he is out of place by working it into the choreography, relying heavily on dodging, stealing punches, grappling, and even hiding behind the referee for most of the match. The latter part was very entertaining to watch because all three actors perfectly mimicked each other's movements, which must have taken a lot of practice. The referee is continuously worked into the fight for comedic purposes, often trying to break up Charlie’s antics, only to end up a recipient of them, like when he tries to stop Chaplin from tackling the opponent only to be hit himself. After a few minutes of chaos, at the end of the scene, Chaplin ends up losing the fight and the world champ remains victorious, but not without Chaplin giving his best effort to steal it in his patented comic fashion.