Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Limelight’: the only movie to win an Oscar 20 years after its release
While we often label certain figures as highly influential filmmakers who changed cinema forever, there’s no exaggerating the impact that Charlie Chaplin had on the art form. In fact, he is perhaps the most influential star to have emerged in the silent era, changing comedy forever with his slapstick style, which was both silly and sharp.
He made his acting debut in the 1914 film Making A Living, before making his first appearance as his iconic Tramp character just five days later with the release of Kid Auto Races at Venice. It was a prolific year for Chaplin, who starred in many short films before eventually making his directorial debut in 1921 with The Kid.
Chaplin advanced cinema massively with his smart stories that perfectly balanced pathos with humour. These weren’t just films that saw him fall over or get himself into tricky situations for the mere promise of a laugh. His films analysed the human condition and relationships in a way that hadn’t been done before, and he often satirised relevant issues, like when he made The Great Dictator, which made fun of fascist dictators like Adolf Hitler.
The filmmaker and actor received his first Oscar in 1928 when he won an ‘Honorary Academy Award’ for The Circus. He would earn three nominations for The Great Dictator, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Actor’, but his first competitive win came much later with the release of Limelight, which won Chaplin ‘Best Original Score’.
Yet, Chaplin accidentally made Oscars history with his win, because the movie was actually 20 years old when he won the prize. This has only ever happened on this occasion, and it’s all down to the filmmaker’s inability to return to the United States once he left to go and promote the film. It was the height of the Red Scare, and the actor was facing Communist accusations, among a few other controversies, such as a paternity suit.
When he set off from America to go to his native United Kingdom, he soon found that he was unable to return, getting his visa re-entry denied. With an FBI investigation against him, he lived in Switzerland for a while, but in 1972 he finally returned when the Oscars offered him an ‘Academy Honorary Award’ for his contributions to cinema.
He decided to go back, even though he had no plans of ever returning to the United States. The following year, with the release of Limelight now going ahead in America for the first time, Chaplin was able to earn the Oscars acclaim from it that he’d failed to achieve initially. Winning ‘Best Original Score’, it’s interesting to consider that the cinematic titan never actually won a ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Picture’ or ‘Best Actor’ award. Still, he was finally recognised in a competitive category, even if the circumstances were rather unusual.
Chaplin was delighted to be honoured by the Academy, and he died several years later at the age of 88. Limelight was based on a novella that the filmmaker had previously written, and he starred in the main role while fellow silent era icon Buster Keaton also featured in the movie. It might not be one of his most memorable movies as opposed to The Gold Rush or City Lights, but it was a defining moment in his career.
