Limelight (1952)

Charles Chaplin: Calvero

Photos 

Quotes 

• Terry : If all else fails, there's always that little home in the country.

  Calvero : This is my home, here.

  Terry : I thought you hated the theater.

  Calvero : I do. I also hate the sight of blood, but it's in my veins.

• Calvero : There's something about working the streets I like. It's the tramp in me I suppose.

• Calvero : That's all any of us are: amateurs. We don't live long enough to be anything else.

• Calvero : What do you want meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning. Desire is the theme of all life! It makes a rose want to be a rose and want to grow like that. And a rock want to contain itself and remain like that.

• Calvero : Life can be wonderful if you're not afraid of it.

• Calvero : Time is the great author. Always writes the perfect ending.

• Terry : Worms can't smile!

  Calvero : Oh, how would you know, have you ever appealed to their sense of humour?

  Terry : Of course not.

  Calvero : Well then!

• Calvero : I believe I'm dying, doctor. Maybe, I don't know. I've died so many times.

  Dr. Blake - Calvero's Doctor : Are you in pain?

  Calvero : No more.

• Calvero : The heart and the mind, what an enigma!

• Terry : What is there to fight for?

  Calvero : Ah, you see, you admit it. What is there to fight for? Everything! Life itself, isn't that enough? To be lived, suffered, enjoyed! What is there to fight for? Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish. Huh, what is there to fight for? Besides, you - you have your art, your dancing!

  Terry : I can't dance without legs!

  Calvero : I know a man without arms who can play a scherzo on a violin and does it all with his toes. The trouble is you won't fight! You've given in, continually dwelling on sickness and death. But - there's something just as inevitable as death, and that's life. Life, life, life! Think of the power that's in the universe, moving the earth, growing the trees. That's the same power within you if you only have courage and the will to use it!

• Calvero : I'm through clowning. Life isn't a gag anymore. I can't see the joke. From now on, I'm a retired humorist.

• Calvero : What a day! The sun's shining, the kettle's singing, *and* we've paid the rent. There's going to be an earthquake, I know it, I know it, I know it.

• Calvero : Don't be afraid to tell, maybe I can help. I'm an old sinner, nothing shocks me.

• Terry : I'm sorry.

  Calvero : You should be. A young girl like you wanting to throw your life away. Heh! When you are my age you want to hang onto it.

• [last lines] 

  Calvero : Where is she? I want to see her dance.

  Postant : Bring the - bring the couch into the wings.

  Dr. Blake - Calvero's Doctor : I must see about that ambulance.

• Calvero : [stuck in a drum]  This is a wonderful evening. I'd like to continue, but I'm stuck!

• Calvero : We'll have to get you well! It isn't the ideal spot for convalescing, but you're welcome to it. That is, if you can put up with being Mrs. Calvero. Of course, in name only!

  Terry : Won't it inconvenience you?

  Calvero : Not at all! I've had five wives already, one more or less makes no difference to me. Moreover, I've arrived at the age where a platonic friendship can be sustained on the highest moral plane.

• Terry : What a sad business, being funny.

  Calvero : Very sad if they won't laugh. But it's a thrill when they do. To look out there and see them all laughing, to hear that roar go up, waves of laughter coming at you.

• Calvero : They walked out on me. They haven't done that since I was a beginner. The cycle's complete.

• Calvero : How do I look?

  Terry : [can see he was drinking]  Funny.

  Calvero : I know what you're thinking, my health and all that. But there's a creamy white light going on and off inside.

  Terry : Is it really worth it?

  Calvero : Not that I care for success, but I don't want another failure.

• [as Terry dances, Calvero prays behind the stage] 

  Calvero : Whoever you are, whatever it is, just keep her going. That's all. Keep her...

  [sees someone staring at him] 

  Calvero : I've lost a button.

• Mrs. Alsop : She's not going back to her old room!

  Calvero : Well then, she'll just have to stay where she is.

  Mrs. Alsop : What? And scandalize my whole household?

  Calvero : What's the difference? We could be man and wife for all anyone knows.

  Mrs. Alsop : Oh, could you? Well, you'd better not be. You'd better get rid of her and quick too. Man and wife! You watch out for that hussy. She's no good.

• Calvero : The same Terry.

  Terry : Am I?

  Calvero : A little more grown-up, that's all.

  Terry : I don't want to grow up.

  Calvero : None of us do.

• Terry : Why didn't you let me die?

  Calvero : Are you in pain? That's all that matters. The rest is fantasy. Billions of years it's taken to evolve human consciousness and you want to wipe it out. Wipe out the miracle of all existence. More important than anything in the whole universe! What can the stars do? Nothing! But sit on their axis! And the sun, shooting flames 280,000 miles high. So what? Wasting all its natural resources. Can the sun think? Is it conscious? No, but you are!

  [notices Terry has fallen asleep] 

  Calvero : Pardon me, my mistake.

• Calvero : As a man gets on in years he wants to live deeply. A feeling of sad dignity comes upon him, and that's fatal for a comic. It affected my work. I lost contact with the audience, couldn't warm up to them.

• Calvero : At this stage of the game life gets to be a habit.

  Terry : A hopeless one.

  Calvero : Then live without hope. Live for the moment. There are still - there are still - there are still wonderful moments.

• Calvero : I want to forget the public.

  Terry : Never. You love them too much.

  Calvero : I'm not so sure. Maybe I love them, but I don't admire them.

  Terry : I think you do.

  Calvero : As individuals, yes. There's greatness in everyone. But as a crowd, they're like a monster without a head that never knows which way it's going to turn. It can be prodded in any direction.

• Terry : I'd despise myself if I thought that.

  Calvero : That's the trouble, you do. That's the trouble with the world. We all despise ourselves.

• Calvero : [drunkenly]  Yes, I shouldn't drink. It's bad for the heart. What about the mind? I suppose that should be clear and alert so I can contemplate the future. The prospects of joining those gray-haired nymphs that sleep on the Thames embankment at night.

• Calvero : We're just having a little beer, Bach and Beethoven, as it were.

  Terry : Isn't it rather late for music?

  Calvero : Not if we play a nocturne.

  [to the band] 

  Calvero : Proceed with the butchery, only make it soft, sentimental, largo.

• Calvero : All the world's a stage. And this one is the most legitimate. However, I must get on, otherwise, my confrères will think I've run off with the takings.

• Terry : Calvero, come back. You've got to come back.

  Calvero : I can't. I must go forward. That's progress.

• Calvero : Now let me see, your mother was a dressmaker and your father a Lord?

  Terry : The fourth son of a Lord. That's quite different.

  Calvero : How is it that he married your mother?

  Terry : She was one of the family housemaids.

  Calvero : Sounds like a novelette!

• Calvero : The meaning of anything is merely other words for the same thing. After all, a rose is a rose is a rose. It's not bad. It should be quoted.

• Calvero : [dream sequence, performing on stage]  My ode to a worm. Oh worm, why do you turn into the earth from me? 'Tis Spring! Oh worm! Lift up your head, Whichever end that be, And smile at the sun, Untwine your naked form, And with your tail, fling! High the dirt in ecstasy! 'Tis Spring! 'Tis Spring! 'Tis Spring!

• Terry : [Calvero sneezes as part of his act on stage]  Gezundheit!

  Calvero : It certainly does.

  Terry : I beg your pardon?

  Calvero : The dress. It goes on tight.

• Calvero : The bee's behavior in the beehive is unbeelievable.

• Calvero : We're all grubbing for a living, the best of us. All a part of the human crusade, written in water.

• Calvero : You! You wonderful little plum pudding, you! But we must behave ourselves.

• Terry : I'm scared. Pray for me.

  Calvero : God helps those who help themselves.

• Calvero : Well, you've done it. How's it feel to wake up famous? That's right, have a good cry and enjoy it. It only happens once.

• Calvero : The whole thing is false. In the few years I have left, I must have truth. Truth. That's all I have left. Truth. That's all I want. And if possible, a little dignity.

• Terry : Something's gone. Gone forever.

  Calvero : Nothing's gone, it only changes.

• Postant : Yes, like old times. In those days you were drunk, instead of sober.

  Calvero : I'm supposed to be funnier when I'm drunk.

  Postant : Maybe, but, you were killing yourself.

  Calvero : You know what they say, anything for a laugh.

• Calvero : How's the house?

  Postant : Packed to the rafters. Every face card in Europe's out there. Kings, Queens, Jacks.

• Terry : Are you all right?

  Calvero : Of course. I'm an old weed. The more I'm cut down, the more I spring up again.

• Calvero : Destiny must be a headmistess.

• Mrs. Alsop : [sees Terry asleep on Calvero's bed]  So this is how she spends her evenings. You take your hands off me! What's that woman doing in your room?

  Calvero : Just the opposite of what *you* think.

• Calvero : You have a leaking gas pipe.

  Mrs. Alsop : I have a *what*?

  Calvero : I mean, that room has a leaking gas pipe.

• Calvero : [dream sequence, performing on stage]  I don't know you? Who are you? Who are your people? Are you in the social register?

  Terry : My name happens to be Smith.

  Calvero : Never heard of them.

  Terry : That shows you're asinine.

  Calvero : I should have worn my overcoat.

• Calvero : What did you do?

  Terry : I just ran and wept. Ran and wept.

  Calvero : Then what happened?

  Terry : I tried to forget.

• Calvero : Sybil, you really want to hurt me, don't you? You little minx.

  Mrs. Alsop : Behave yourself!

• Mrs. Alsop : Just the man I want to see.

  Calvero : How thrilling!

• Calvero : Don't worry. I can handle the old girl. All she needs is a little pinch and a pat.

• Calvero : [singing]  Oh, it's love, It's love, It's love-love-love-love-love-love, Love-love-love-love-love-love-love-love, Love-love-love-love-love-love-love...

• Calvero : And in the elegant melancholy of twilight, he will tell you that he loves you.

• Terry : I'm tired of fighting.

  Calvero : Because you're fighting yourself. You won't give yourself a chance. But the fight for happiness is beautiful.

  Terry : Happiness...

  Calvero : There is such a thing.

  Terry : Where?

  Calvero : Listen, as a child I used to complain to my father about not having toys and he would say this

  [pointing his head] 

  Calvero : is the greatest toy ever created. Here lies the secret of all happiness.

• Terry : To hear you talk, no one would ever think you were a comedian.

  Calvero : I'm beginning to realize that. It's the reason I can't get a job.

  Terry : Why?

  Calvero : Because they have no imagination. Or think because I'm getting on in years I'm old, all washed up.

• Terry : I'm sorry.

  Calvero : You should be. A young girl like you wanting to throw your life away. When you're my age, you'll want to hang on to it.

  Terry : Why?

  Calvero : Well, at this stage of the game life gets to be a habit.

  Terry : A hopeless one.

  Calvero : Then live without hope. Live for the moment. There are still, there are still... There are still wonderful moments.

  Terry : But if you've lost your health!

  Calvero : My dear, I was given up for dead six months ago, but I fought back. That's what you must do.

• Calvero : Perhaps I drank too much.

  Terry : There's usually a reason for drinking.

  Calvero : Oh yes.

  Terry : Unhappiness, I suppose.

  Calvero : No, I'm used to that. It was more complicated. As a man gets on in years, he wants to live deeply. A feeling of sad dignity comes upon him, and that's fatal for a comic. It affected my work. I lost contact with the audience, couldn't warm up to them. And that's what started me drinking. I had to have it before I went on. It got so I couldn't be funny without it. The more I drank... It became a vicious circle.

  Terry : What happened?

  Calvero : A heart attack. I almost died.

  Terry : And you're still drinking?

  Calvero : Occasionally, if I think of things. The wrong things I suppose, as you do.

• Terry : If we could only get away. That house in the country, where we could have peace and happiness.

  Calvero : Happiness. The first time I've ever heard you mention that word.

  Terry : I'm always happy with you.

  Calvero : Are you?

  Terry : Of course. I love you.

• Calvero : Everyone's so kind to me. Makes me feel isolated.

• Dr. Blake - Calvero's Doctor : I believe it's a case of psycho-anesthesia.

  Calvero : What's that?

  Dr. Blake - Calvero's Doctor : A form of hysteria that has the characteristics of paralysis without being so.

  Calvero : How do you account for it?

  Dr. Blake - Calvero's Doctor : In her case, I'd say it's psychological, self-imposed. Having failed at suicide, she's decided to become a cripple.

• Calvero : Is there any way I can help?

  Dr. Blake - Calvero's Doctor : Primarily she must help herself. It's a case for a psychologist.

  Calvero : Doctor Freud. Well, I'll see what I can do.

• Calvero : [singing]  I got a bright idea, While searching through my underwear, A thought occurred to me...

• Calvero : He'll tell you he's composed a ballet for you. And you'll realize who he is, you'll tell him who you are and how you met, and how you waited on him. And gave him extra music sheets. And that night you'll dine together on a balcony overlooking the Thames. It'll be summer. And you'll be wearing pink mousseline. And he'll be conscious of its fragrance. And all London will be dreamy and beautiful. And in the elegant melancholy of twilight, as the candles flutter and make your eyes dance, he will tell you he loves you. And you will tell him you have always loved him.

• Calvero : Life can be wonderful if you're not afraid of it. All it needs is courage, imagination, and a little dough.