MODERN TIMES (1936, USA, 89m, U) ****½
Comedy, Drama, Romance
dist. United Artists; pr co. Charles Chaplin Productions; d. Charles Chaplin; w. Charles Chaplin; pr. Charles Chaplin; ph. Rollie Totheroh, Ira Morgan (B&W | 1.37:1); m. Charles Chaplin; ed. Charles Chaplin, Willard Nico (both uncredited); pd. Charles D. Hall (uncredited); ad. J. Russell Spencer (uncredited).
cast: Charles Chaplin (A Factory Worker), Paulette Goddard (A Gamin), Henry Bergman (Cafe Proprietor), Tiny Sandford (Big Bill), Chester Conklin (Mechanic), Hank Mann (Burglar), Stanley Blystone (Gamin’s Father), Al Ernest Garcia (President of the Electro Steel Corp.), Richard Alexander (Prison Cellmate), Cecil Reynolds (Minister), Mira McKinney (Minister’s Wife), Murdock MacQuarrie (J. Widdecombe Billows), Wilfred Lucas (Juvenile Officer), Edward LeSaint (Sheriff Couler), Fred Malatesta (Cafe Head Waiter), Sammy Stein (Turbine Operator), Juana Sutton (Woman with Buttoned Bosom), Ted Oliver (Billows’ Assistant).
Chaplin’s final silent comedy finds the iconic Little Tramp employed at a state-of-the-art factory where the inescapable machinery completely overwhelms him, and where various mishaps keep getting him sent to prison. In between his various jail stints, he meets and befriends an orphan girl (Goddard). Both together and apart, they try to contend with the difficulties of modern life, with the Tramp working as a waiter and eventually a performer. Filled to the brim with inventive visual physical comedy, which is hung around a satiric and episodic narrative making isolated social statements, this is almost like a Greatest Hits package of the legendary comedian’s work. Whilst the story lacks a solid structure, Chaplin’s often acrobatic antics remain charming and hilarious. Splendid production design, notably in the factory settings. This film was selected into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1989 for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
