The INCspotlight: Modern Times (1936)

(Originally posted on Channel Awesome on March 23, 2015)

Charlie Chaplin bids farewell to the Silent Era in Modern Times, a stellar bittersweet comedy and my personal favorite of Chaplin's feature films (not to mention one of my favorite movies period).

In 1931, after the successful release of City Lights, Chaplin took a break from Hollywood and spent the next eighteen months touring the world. During his trip, he was struck by how the Great Depression had devastated so many lives. His own fortune and fame, compared to the dire straits so many other people were living in, was also getting to him and grating on his conscience. While in London that same year, he met Mahatma Gandhi, one of the few people at the time who had no idea who Chaplin was - which didn't stop them from discussing economic fairness. (Ironically, the late Richard Attenborough would end up directing movies about both of them.) Chaplin was particularly concerned about industrialization and automation at the cost of people being able to keep desperately-needed jobs. He even went so far as to commit his Economic Solution to paper, advocating for improving distribution of work as well as money, as well as the need for machines to work on behalf of people instead of replacing them as workers. This ended up giving birth to the idea for Modern Times, released five years after City Lights.

Charlie Chaplin and Mahatma Gandhi in London, 1931​

At the time Chaplin was working on Modern Times, he had been dating co-star Paulette Goddard (1910 - 1990) since July 1932, after meeting her at a party hosted by future Twentieth Century Fox co-founder Joseph M. Schenk. Born Paulette Levy, she had been a Ziegfeld Follies girl as a teenager and married playboy Edgar James at the age of 16 - a marriage that lasted less than a year. After her divorce, she tried her hand at Hollywood, only able to rack up a handful of bit parts with Samuel Goldwyn, followed by the Hal Roach Studio. Modern Times ended up being her first major role, and her career as an actress began to take off afterwards. Chaplin planned to use her in more films (and the two shared the screen again in 1940's The Great Dictator), but given how slow Chaplin was to make and release his films, she moved on to other projects to maintain her career momentum.Her performance in The Women (1939) earned her rave reviews, even from the notoriously caustic Pauline Kael, and she narrowly missed out on the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). By the 1940s, Goddard was a major Hollywood star, even snagging a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in So Proudly We Hail! (1943), although her career declined in the 1950s. She stuck with television for much of her later career, including an episode of The Errol Flynn Theater in 1957. As for her relationship with Chaplin, the two of them married in June 1936, and they would remain together until 1942. She would marry twice more after separating from Chaplin, including Burgess Meredith of Batman and Rocky fame. Diane Lane portrayed Goddard in the previously mentioned biopic Chaplin (1992), and she did a pretty good job as I recall.

WARNING: Here be spoilers! Also, as a quick note in case anyone actually cares, I usually refer to everyone by the names of their characters when summarizing the plot of the film. However, since none of the characters in Modern Timeshave names (and are credited as "A Factory Worker," "The Gamin," etc.), for the sake of simplicity, I'm just going to use the names of the actors.

Chaplin plays an unnamed assembly line worker at the Electro Steel Corporation. The president of the company (Al Ernest Garcia) not only uses video screen to spy on his employees (even in the bathroom), but is constantly trying to find ways to increase productivity, such as an automatic feeder that will eliminate the need for a lunch break. Naturally, Chaplin is forced to test it, with darkly hilarious results. Between being a guinea pig and the ever increasing pace he has to work, Chaplin snaps from the strain, having to some time in a mental institution. He gets out eventually, only to be arrested that same day for trying to return a red flag a truck dropped, crossing paths with a socialist march. (A possible "take that" to those who inaccurately accused Chaplin of being a Communist in real life?) However, he earns himself some good will from the warden when he helps stop a jailbreak, thanks to an accidental dose of "nose powder" a fellow prisoner stashed in a salt shaker having a Popeye-like affect on him.

When Chaplin's reluctantly released from jail, where he could count on three square meals a day and a roof over his head, he tries to get himself arrested. This leads him to cross paths with a young homeless girl (Paulette Goddard), a street thief whose father was killed during a riot. When her younger sisters were taken away to be put into orphanages, Goddard escaped and has continued stealing for food. Chaplin, eager to return to jail, takes the rap for swiping a loaf of bread Goddard stole, but the ruse fails when a witness tells the police of Chaplin's innocence. They end up in the same paddy wagon, and thanks to a timely accident, they both escape. With no one to rely on but each other, Chaplin and Goddard find a home for themselves and try to make a go at earning a living. The rest of the film is Chaplin making various attempts at just trying to land a job - his old gig at the factory where he used to work, a security guard at a department store, and a singing and dancing waiter. For one reason or another, none of these work out (usually involving Chaplin's brief return to jail), and at the end of the film, Goddard is ready to give up all hope. However, Chaplin's encouraging and optimistic words give her the determination to keep on trying. As many Chaplin films do, we end with the Tramp heading off into the sunset, this time not alone - and for what would be the last time.

Originally, Modern Times was not supposed to have been a silent film, and Chaplin even went so far as to write dialogue and conduct sound tests. However, Chaplin wanted to use his Tramp character once again, and he felt the Tramp would lose his charm if he were to speak. (Chaplin's next movie, 1940's The Great Dictator, ended up being his first all-talking film.) On the other hand, Chaplin cleverly incorporated sound in other ways, beyond the frequent use of synchronized sound effects. A few lines are indeed spoken, either through audio recordings, the radio, or when the Electro Steel Corp's president is talking via electronic screens. And then there's the song Chaplin sings in the club he works at, sung deliberately in gibberish so as to best appeal to worldwide audiences without alienating anyone (his body language and hand gestures make it clear what he's singing about). If you've never seen a silent movie before, the few bits of spoken words might make Modern Times a good one to start with before moving on to all-silent films.

To quote Chaplin biographer David Robinson, "Modern Times is an emotional response, based always in comedy, to the circumstances of the times." The goal of this film is to simply put a face on ordinary, down-on-their luck people who have been shafted by an unsympathetic, dehumanized society. Chaplin doesn't just show this through what his character alone has to go through, with Goddard's character getting a sizable amount of the film dedicated to her own arc. Even Chaplin's co-workers from earlier in the film make a comeback later on as burglars robbing the store that Chaplin's guarding as a watchman. They were driven to crime because they had tried and failed to get honest jobs, and all they're after is food. Interestingly, Modern Times doesn't vilify anyone in this film. The police and truant officers are certainly desensitized, caring only about the letter of the law without regard to circumstances, but I'm not sure they're meant to be seen as malicious. Even the factory boss isn't evil. He's a jerk for not giving his workers a break and using them as test subjects for mad inventors, but he's not a mustache-twirling villain. He's just a symptom of a larger problem. Still, for all the stark bleakness that permeates throughout the film in spite of the comedic antics, Chaplin ends Modern Times on a semi-hopeful note, with the possibility that someday, our two main characters might be able to find some happiness together. (The original ending had Chaplin having a second nervous breakdown and Goddard becoming a nun, but Chaplin scrapped it for a more optimistic conclusion. Personally, I approve of the change.)

Acting-wise, what can I say about Chaplin's gift as a performer that hasn't been already been said millions of times? His graceful movements, comic timing, his childlike innocence (even when he's committing wholesale mayhem during his nervous breakdown), and his energy make him such a joy to watch. I'm surprised he was able to get away with some of the gags in the film. Besides the cocaine bit (since any mention of drugs was banned by the Hays Code), there's also a moment during Chaplin's breakdown when he's trying to turn anything button-like with his wrenches, including some unfortunately placed buttons on a couple of women's dresses. (They manage to outrun him, but still...) However, he doesn't completely steal the show, courtesy of Paulette Goddard. She puts a lot of energy and zeal into her performance, and I find her to be the most memorable of Chaplin's leading ladies as a result, aside from Edna Purviance (and mostly because I've seen Purviance in so many of Chaplin's early short films). That's certainly not intended as a slur against Georgia Hale or Virginia Cherrill - they gave great performances in The Gold Rush and City Lights respectively. Maybe Goddard stands out more for me because Modern Times gives her character much more to do than Hale or Cherrill had to work with (which makes sense, since Goddard had input on the storyline).

Another aspect of Modern Times that shouldn't be overlooked is the technical sophistication and cinematic touches. The symbolism throughout the film is anything but subtle - for instance, the opening shot transitions from a scene of stampeding cattle to a rush of people heading to work - but it's effective. The surrealist design of the steel factory (not to mention the iconic scene of Chaplin within the machine) gives the early scenes of Modern Times a distinct visual style. I also like Chaplin's musical score, especially the way it captures rhythm of the hustle and bustle of modern-day living and the frantic pace of the assembly line. Chaplin composed the music to many of his films (including for their re-releases), but he seems to have put extra effort into the music for this one. Goddard recounted that Chaplin worked obsessively on perfecting the score, leaving the studio only when she begged him to - an incident depicted in Chaplin (1992). Acclaimed composer Alfred Newman (who had worked with Chaplin on the score for City Lights) is credited as the conductor in the opening titles, although things between him and Chaplin got ugly during a bad take, and Newman quit. Chaplin also had a falling out with future composer David Raksin, who would later become a renowned film score composer in his own right. (Edward Powell ended up taking over for Newman as orchestrator and conductor.) The music for the ending scene has been adapted into a hit Nat King Cole song (with lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons), which Robert Downey Jr. himself performed at the end of Chaplin. Michael Jackson, Josh Groban, and Gloria Estefan are among those who have performed or recorded covers of this song.

Sadly, Modern Times was not quite a success when it was released. It made more money internationally than it did in the United States, in spite of the film being banned in Germany and Italy. Critics were positive about Chaplin's talent as a filmmaker and a comedian (although some felt the gags were too familiar), but the theme was divisive. Not only was it slammed by some for its anti-Capitalist views (in fact, this film was used as evidence to accuse Chaplin of being a Communist), but others were upset that it didn't go far enough with its social criticism. To add insult to injury, the German studio Tobis Film claimed that Modern Times had ripped off its 1931 film À Nous la Liberté, directed by René Clair (much to Clair's embarrassment, as he was a huge Chaplin fan, and he refused to be a part of the case). The first lawsuit failed, but Tobis sued again after World War II, and Chaplin settled out of court with them just to get them to leave him alone. Today, however, Modern Times is widely recognized for the classic that it is, and some would say its message is more timely than ever. It's made several of AFI's Top 100 lists, ranking #78 on their list of the best 100 movies ever made. As for me, as good as Chaplin's entire body of work is, this one will always be my personal favorite, even though I don't know if it's his best.

Modern Times is such a joy to watch, charming you and making you laugh while pulling at your heartstrings. It shouldn't be hard to find, so definitely see it if you can.