Limelight is inescapably a personal film for each of us from the moment we see it for the first time. No matter if this happened under unfavorable stars, as was my own case. I was a zombie programmed into the humor of Abbott and Costello when my father took me to see the new Chaplin film. He praised Chaplin and swore that he was the funniest man on earth. So at the age of ten, I was sitting and watching Limelight. It was enough to alienate me from Chaplin for many years—as I didn’t laugh then, why should I give the guy another chance? Unknowingly, I had entered in the midst of Calvero’s trouble. From the eternity of the screen, he was clearly trying as desperately and vainly as myself to reach the happiness of laughter.
— Peter von Bagh (Criterion)
Synopsis: A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.