Limelight ★★★ 1952

A nearly washedup music hall comedian is stimulated by a young ballerina to a final hour of glory. A subtle if selfindulgent portrait of Chaplin's own life, featuring an historic pairing of Chaplin and Keaton. 120m/B VHS, DVD . Charlie Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Buster Keaton, Nigel Bruce, Sydney Chaplin; D: Charlie Chaplin; W: Charlie Chaplin; C: Karl Struss; M: Charlie Chaplin.

lime·light / ˈlīmˌlīt/ • n. intense white light obtained by heating a cylinder of lime in an oxyhydrogen flame, formerly used in theaters. ∎  (the limelight) the focus of public attention: the works that brought the artists into the limelight.

limelight an intense white light obtained by heating lime, formerly used in theatres; figuratively, the focus of public attention.
backing into the limelight apparently shrinking from attention while actually seeking it. The phrase is particularly associated with T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), and has been ascribed by oral tradition to Lord Berners. However, the diaries of the German diplomat Count Harry Kessler record a meeting with George Bernard Shaw in 1929, in which Shaw repeated his own comment to Lawrence that, ‘You always hide just in the middle of the limelight.’