Calvero, once a famous Music Hall star, now a washed-up old man, saves a neighbor from suicide. He nurtures the young ballerina with paralyzed legs back to health, and helps her regain her self-esteem, so that she may return to the stage.

Made during the height of McCarthyism and the Red Scare in the U.S., Limelight was Chaplin’s reaction to his own decreasing popularity. A return to the memories of his youth spent in London music halls, it depicts with sweet and nostalgic details the life of an entertainer, as well as fame’s blows.