City Lights (1931)

In this memorable Charlie Chaplin silent film:

• the Tramp's (Charlie Chaplin) mocking of talkies in the opening scene - his unsuccessful attempts to extricate himself from the lap of a large marble statue - with a giant sword catching the seat of his pants
• the Tramp's encounters with a drunken millionaire (Harry Myers) who repeatedly attempted suicide
• the scene of the Tramp admiring a store window - and just missing falling into a freight elevator hole behind him
• the marvelous pantomime of the prize fight episode in which the Tramp tried to raise money for a beautiful blind flower girl's (Virginia Cherrill) operation by entering the boxing ring in a balletic bout that he believed had been fixed - danced around the ring to evade his opponent
• the slapstick scene when the blind flower girl was knitting and she pulled a thread from the Tramp's vest and completely unraveled it
• the hilarious spaghetti-confetti sequence in which the Tramp confused the spaghetti on his plate with strings of streamers
• the tearful, sentimental ending when the down-and-out Tramp, now released from prison, saw the blind girl - with restored sight in the display window of the flower shop of her successful business; she said to her grandmother (Florence Lee): "I've made a conquest!"
• the moment that she took pity on a trampish beggar (although she had been laughing when he was being teased by some teen newspaper boys) by offering him a fresh flower and a coin - and simultaneously realized, in a moment of hand-held recognition, that he was her unlikely benefactor-savior; she asked: "You?" and he shyly nodded positively; he pointed to his own eyes: "You can see now?" and she said that she could: "Yes, I can see now," and she held his hand to her chest
• the film ended with a slow fade to black during a closeup of the Tramp's face and smile (with a rose stem in his mouth), both with uncertainty and joy, after she had identified him

The Flower Girl's Moment of Recognition