TOO FUNNY FOR WORDS: The room will rock with laughter watching Charlie Chaplin in  “CITY LIGHTS”  at the historic Cliftex Theatre in Clifton Monday, August 24

By E. BRETT VOSS

Bosque Film Society Founder & Board President

“Tomorrow, the birds will sing” “Thank you for your kindness, sir.”

The Bosque Film Society invites the public to join now and experience our seventh 2026 monthly members-only FILM APPRECIATION NIGHT AT THE MOVIES featuring Charlie Chaplin as the iconic tramp in “CITY LIGHTS” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, August 24 at The Cliftex Theatre in Clifton with an introductory presentation by Bosque Film Society founder and board president Brett Voss.

Directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin, along with Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers and Florence Lee, “CITY LIGHTS” represents one of the last silent films produced, featuring no audible dialog with a synchronized musical score along with sound effects.

With the aid of a wealthy erratic tippler, a dewy-eyed tramp (Chaplin), who has fallen in love with a blind flower girl (Cherrill), accumulates money to be able to help her medically since her family is in financial trouble. The tramp’s on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man (Myers) allows him to be the girl’s benefactor and suitor.

With Orson Welles calling it his favorite movie of all time, “CITY LIGHTS” immediately became a success upon release on March 7, 1931, with positive. Today, many critics consider it not only the highest accomplishment of Chaplin’s career, but one of the greatest films of all time.

Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance believes “City Lights is not only Charles Chaplin’s masterpiece; it is an act of defiance” as it premiered four years into the era of sound films which began with the premiere of The Jazz Singer (1927).

In 1949, the critic James Agee called the film’s final scene “the greatest single piece of acting ever committed to celluloid.” In 1991, the Library of Congress selected City Lights for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked it 11th on its list of the best American films ever made.

Established in 2020, Bosque Film Society is a non-profit organization focused on promoting film appreciation, education and production in Bosque County, Texas, while serving as the “Friends of The Cliftex Theatre,” the longest continuously-operating movie theater in Texas, showing films on the silver screen since 1916.

For more information about joining the Bosque Film Society’s non-profit efforts to support The Cliftex Theatre, visit our website at: https://bosquefilm.com/membership/.