Every review is positive, and most are warm. The praise gathers around Chaplin’s pantomime and his decision to keep the film silent, which critics from 1931 onwards treat as the right call rather than a stubborn one. The prize-fight sequence is named again and again as the comic high point, and several reviews single out the closing scene as the film’s emotional peak. The mix of slapstick and sentiment is the recurring phrase, and most think the balance holds.
The reservations are about pace and sentiment. Time Out finds the structure baggy and the story of the Tramp and the blind flower-seller close to too sweet, while Variety, writing in 1931, thinks the film gives up speed for pathos and is not Chaplin’s best. The Hollywood Reporter, revisiting its original verdict, agrees it is funny but not exceptional. The spread runs from good to near-perfect, with the two trade papers coolest and the later critics warmest.