Chaplin's boldest film

Definitely the weakest (of the ones I’ve seen) of all the feature length films Chaplin directed as this is quite a sudden departure from everything else he’d made at the time of its release, which is why it goes down as one of the boldest films he ever had his name on. He even has a disclaimer for the public at the start stating that this is a serious drama, nor does he star in it. He obviously didn’t want to be typecast forever as a comic and wanted to show the world his skill as a filmmaker and what he could do on-screen dramatically. Despite this label, it still has its wit and charm, just minus the slapstick and physical comedy.

Although quite slow and repetitive at times, it’s still a well executed story with a very acceptable length. I find anything related to the culture and fashion of the jazz and flapper age interesting as hell so that alone is why it worked more for me than others. It’s not as striking and captivating as his other films, to the point where I was going to give it a 3½ rating originally, and then that phenomenal final act came out of nowhere and justified everything that went down on screen before to deliver a moving and heartfelt ending, as Charlie always masterfully achieves.