44. Charlie Chaplin as A Tramp
      City Lights (1931)

Singling out Chaplin’s best performance is tough. His iconic Little Tramp remained a constant until late in his career. Still, City Lights is transcendent. The Tramp’s infatuation with the poor, blind flower girl and his friendship with a suicidal, alcoholic millionaire perfectly express Chaplin’s obsessions—desperate poverty, compassion, and cleverness defying all odds—and the movie, stubbornly silent four years into the sound era, showcases some of his funniest sight gags. The boxing match he submits to in order to pay the girl’s rent is the most exquisitely choreographed and least gimmicky of all his extended routines. And the last shot, a radiant close-up of Chaplin, smiling vulnerably at the no-longer-sightless flower girl and looking clown-ugly, is an utterly uncompromised vision of love.

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