Through the years, Truus' greatest idol had been Charlie Chaplin. Simple comedy was easy - banana peels, fat ladies, funny dogs - all the clichés of slapstick had been done to death, but what Chaplin was doing was different. His latest picture, "City Lights" summed it up: its characters and situations somehow caused an audience to care about the people on the screen. Yes, the story of a tramp who loved a blind flower-girl was sentimental and old-fashioned, but the film wove a powerful spell over audiences, and they left the cinemas exhausted from an emotional rollercoaster. Truus determined to seek out more dramatic roles - playing dizzy teenagers wasn't enough - she wanted to speak to an audience's emotions like Chaplin did.