Director: Charles Chaplin
Genre: Comedy, Drama
The machines get us in and the machines get us out! ~Myself
Modern Times was written, directed, produced, and scored by Chaplin. Not only is it one of the greatest social criticisms ever made (ranking right up there with such outstanding timely films as the Marx Brother's Duck Soup and Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), this was also Chaplin's staunch stand against the advent of sound motion pictures, or "talkies". This film was released roughly nine years after "talkies" had come onto the scene. Chaplin considered sound in movies to be a mere fad and thought it would leave just as soon as it came. He gave credit to the intelligence of audiences and knew that people's imaginations were much more active watching silent movies than they were during sound movies.
He also thought that acting in silent movies was much more of an art because the actors were forced to convey dialogue through body language and mannerisms. Actors in talkies just had to blurt out their memorized lines.
The huge success following the release of Modern Times confirmed these ideas in his head. He brilliantly- I do not use that term loosely here- was outspoken in his opinions about talkies versus silents. This movie is more semi-silent than completely silent. There are a few lines of dialogue but each line is spoken by means of some form of mechanical device or another- i.e. a radio, a television monitor, a recording. It goes to show just how artificial, unfitting, and too mechanical Chaplin thought talking was in movies. He makes such a claim in his book My Autobiography.
Chaplin's actual voice is heard as he has a song, entirely in gibberish, towards the end of the movie.
Chaplin plays his usual "tramp" character that is stuck in the grind of daily technology. The industrial revolution has left its greasy fingerprints all over working class America. And the great depression is looming like an unmerciful villian.
Chaplin, the factory worker, is over worked and ends up having a complete breakdown. After losing his job at the factory, he does his best to find gainful employment, but he has the bad luck of always finding himself in misunderstood trouble. He even ends up in jail after being mistaken for the leader of a communist protest. Meanwhile, he happens to run into a homeless girl (Paulette Goddard- his wife at the time), who is running from social workers trying to place her in adoptive care. As the two befriend each other, they make their way through the competitive streets that are aching with depression, in search of a better life where the ever watching eye of "big brother" catches up with the both of them.
It took Chaplin three years to complete this movie. His demand for perfection and obsession to get it “just right” has made his films, especially this one, withstand time.
This was his last silent movie. Afterwards, he went on to make his first “talkie”, The Great Dictator. Chaplin’s “tramp” had met the fate that Chaplin said talking motion pictures would do to “the little fellow.” Talking killed him.
Chaplin had made movies up to the 1960’s but, except for The Great Dictator, they did not feature the famous “little fellow” with his mustache, hat, and cane. He walked down his last road in Modern Times.
~"Charlie Chaplin, King of Tragedy"...
Chaplin began his acting career in English Vaudeville. He made his first film when he joined Mack Sennett's Keystone Film Company for $150 a week. He played a swindler in his first movie short, Making a Living. In in second film, Kid Auto Races at Venice, he appeared as the " little tramp" that has since become internationally iconic.
After his contract with Keystone was up, he moved to Essanay Company where he produced 12-reel films. He worked under Essanay until 1917 when he became independant and built his own studios on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. He made his own movies and eventually partnered up with movie giants Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford (America's sweetheart), and D.W. Griffith- the grand-daddy of the modern motion picture. Together, the four of them started United Artists, which according to *The History of Movies by B.B. Hampton,
"The corporation was organized as a distributor, each of the artists retaining entire control of his or her respective producing activities, delivering to United Artists the completed pictures for distribution on the same general plan they would have followed with a distributing organization which they did not own. The stock of United Artists was divided equally among the founders. This arrangement introduced a new method into the industry. Heretofore, producers and distributors had been the employers, paying salaries and sometimes a share of the profits to the stars. Under the United Artists system, the stars became their own employers. They had to do their own financing, but they received the producer profits that had formerly gone to their employers and each received his share of the profits of the distributing organization.”
At the start of UA, Chaplin was still under contract with First National. In order to fulfill his contract for on more picture, Chaplin filmed his iconic movie The Kid which made Jackie Coogan America's first child movie star. Coogan later became popular for his role as "Uncle Fester" in the early sitcom The Addams Family.
While under UA, Chaplin made his most famous and recognized films such as The Gold Rush, City Lights, and Modern Times.
Like many other celebrities of his time, Chaplin was accused of being a communist by Sen. Joseph McCarthey, who had produced a file on Chaplin linking him to subversive political activities as far back as 1922.
During a trip to Europe, Chaplin was informed by the U.S Government that he would not be allowed to return. He spent his last years in Switzerland, where he wrote his book My Autobiography in 1964 and made his last film, A Countess from Hong Kong, in 1967.
His 1957 film, A King in New York, was a blatent criticism of McCarthyism and American social life. After entertaining America through two world wars and into "modern times" only to be called a "communist" and then get kicked out, his bitterness was certainly understandable.
In 1972, he was allowed back into the United States to be honored with an Oscar Award for his film genious. He died in 1977.
Aside from A King in New York, other movies he made without his famous"tramp" character include Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952) in which he co-starred with another silent film legend, Buster Keaton.
*http://www.charliechaplin.com
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