5. City Lights
Often hailed as his best film, City Lights proved that Chaplin could be successful even well into the sound age. In City Lights, Chaplin's Tramp becomes involved with two people: an alcoholic millionaire that he saves from preventing suicide, and a blind flower girl that he tries to raise money for in order to send her to a doctor who can cure her. From beginning to end, City Lights is filled with great moments. There is the opening scene where the city officials dedicate a new statue and discover the Tramp asleep on it. There is the boxing match where the Tramp manages to keep the referee between him and his opponent, another when he saves the rich man from drowning himself with a stone but ends up almost drowning himself, and the scene where the flower girl finally sees the Tramp for the first time. The list of great scenes goes on and on, but if City Lights was just a collection of great stunts, it wouldn't have been considered one of the all-time great movies for over 80 years. What puts City Lights into the upper echelons of silent films is the complexity that is hidden beneath the surface. In his excellent review of the film in his Great Movie series, Roger Ebert pointed out that " In City Lights, his only friendships are with people who don't or can't see him: with a drunken millionaire who doesn't recognize him when he sobers up, and with a blind flower girl."Chaplin plays with not only our sense of humor but our emotions as well; this is what made him such a great filmmaker and City Light is one of the best examples of his genius.