1936 USA Black/White 89 minutes

Then there is the hydro-compressed, sterilized mouth wiper

Chaplin stars as an assembly-line worker driven insane by the monotony of his job. After a long spell in an asylum, he searches for work, only to be mistakenly arrested as a Red agitator. Released after foiling a prison break, Chaplin makes the acquaintance of orphaned gamine (Paulette Goddard) and becomes her friend and protector.

He takes on several new jobs for her benefit, but every job ends with a quick dismissal and yet another jail term. During one of his incarcerations, she is hired to dance at a nightclub and arranges for him to be hired there as a singing waiter. He proves an enormous success, but they are both forced to flee their jobs when the orphanage officials show up to claim the girl. Our last image is of Chaplin and The Gamine strolling down a California highway towards new adventures.

Facts

Trivia

Release date: February 5, 1936

This was the first picture for which Chaplin used a shooting script.

The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

A full dialogue script was written for the film, as Chaplin had intended to make a complete talkie. Chaplin went so far as to film a scene with full dialogue before deciding instead to make a partial talkie.

Modern times was one of the films which, because of its political sentiments, convinced the House Un-American activities Committee that Charlie Chaplin was a Communist, a charge he adamantly denied.

Chaplin met actress Paulette Goddard while writing the script for Modern times in 1933. They married in 1936 en divorced in 1942.

Charles Chaplin was labeled a communist, so when he left the US in 1952 for a trip to the UK. J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, learned about it and revoked his re-entry permit. Chaplin then decided to stay in Switzerland.

Cast

Charles Chaplin

Multi Media