Tracing the little tramp's efforts to restore sight to a pretty young flower seller, City Lights is at once Chaplin's funniest and his most poetic film, with brilliant comedy--the boxing match with Hank Mann, the street cleaning scene--virtually juxtaposed with unbearably poignant moments, such as that when the girl, her eyesight restored, sees Charlie for the first time. City Lights was two years (and $2 million) in the making. By the time the film was released, Jean Harlow, who appears as an extra in a night-club sequence, was a star, and sound films were not only the rage but obviously here to stay. But, though he did halt production half-way through to consider the switch to sound, Chaplin determined that City Lights would be silent, with a score composed and carefully supervised by himself. His perfectionism paid off in a box office triumph, and a film that many critics consider to be his masterpiece.