Charlie Chaplin: Films

Modern Times

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Modern = Times marked=20 the last screen appearance of the Little Tramp =E2=80=93 the character = which had brought=20 Charles Chaplin world fame, and who still remains the most universally=20 recognised fictional image of a human being in the history of art.

The world from which the Tramp took his farewell was very different = from that=20 into which he had been born, two decades earlier, before the First World = War.=20 Then he had shared and symbolised the hardships of all the = underprivileged of a=20 world only just emerging from the 19th century. Modern Times = found him=20 facing very different predicaments in the aftermath of America=C2=B9s = Great=20 Depression, when mass unemployment coincided with the massive rise of = industrial=20 automation.

Chaplin was acutely preoccupied with the social and economic problems = of this=20 new age. In 1931 and 1932 he had left Hollywood behind, to embark on an = 18-month=20 world tour. In Europe, he had been disturbed to see the rise of = nationalism and=20 the social effects of the Depression, of unemployment and of automation. = He read=20 books on economic theory; and devised his own Economic Solution, an = intelligent=20 exercise in utopian idealism, based on a more equitable distribution not = just of=20 wealth but of work. In 1931 he told a newspaper interviewer :

=E2=80=9CUnemployment is the vital question . . . Machinery should = benefit mankind.=20 It should not spell tragedy and throw it out of = work.=E2=80=9D

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In Modern = Times he=20 set out to transform his observations and anxieties into comedy. The = little=20 Tramp =E2=80=93 described in the film credits as =E2=80=9Ca Factory = Worker=E2=80=9D- is now one of the=20 millions coping with the problems of the 1930s, which are not so very = different=20 from anxieties of the 21st century =E2=80=93 poverty, unemployment, = strikes and strike=20 breakers, political intolerance, economic inequalities, the tyranny of = the=20 machine, narcotics. The film=E2=80=99s portentous opening title = =E2=80=93 =E2=80=9CThe story of=20 industry, of individual enterprise =E2=80=93 humanity crusading in the = pursuit of=20 happiness=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 is followed by a symbolic juxtaposition of = shots of sheep being=20 herded and of workers streaming out of a factory. Chaplin=E2=80=99s = character is first=20 seen as a worker being driven crazy by his monotonous, inhuman work on a = conveyor belt and being used as a guinea pig to test a machine to feed = workers=20 as they work.

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Paulette Godard

Exceptionally, the Tramp has a companion in his battle with this new = world.=20 On his return to America after a world tour in 1931, Chaplin had met the = actress=20 Paulette Goddard, who was to remain, for several years, an ideal partner = in his=20 private life. Her personality inspired the character of the = =E2=80=9CGamine=E2=80=9D in Modern Times = =E2=80=93 a young=20 girl whose father has been killed in a labour demonstration, and who = joins=20 forces with Chaplin. The couple are neither rebels nor victims, but, = wrote=20 Chaplin, =E2=80=9DThe only two live spirits in a world of automatons. We = are children=20 with no sense of responsibility, whereas the rest of humanity is weighed = down=20 with duty. We are spiritually free=E2=80=9D. In a sense, then, they are = anarchists.

Chaplin at first planned a sadly sentimental ending for the film. = While the=20 Tramp was in hospital, recovering from nervous break-down, the Gamine = was to=20 become a Nun and so be parted from him for ever. This ending was filmed, = but was=20 finally abandoned in favour of a more cheerful finale. = =E2=80=9CWe=C2=B9ll get along=E2=80=9D, says a=20 title; and the couple, arm in arm, set bravely off down a country lane, = towards=20 the horizon

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By the time Modern=20 Times was released, talking pictures had been established for almost = a=20 decade. Till now, Chaplin had resisted dialogue, knowing that his comedy = and its=20 universal understanding depended on silent pantomime. This time though = he=20 weakened to the extent of preparing dialogue, and even doing some trial=20 recordings. Finally he thought better of it, and as in City Lights = uses only=20 music and sound effects. Human voices are only heard filtered through=20 technological devices =E2=80=93 the boss who addresses his workers from = a television=20 screen; the salesman who is only a voice on the phonograph.

Just at one moment, though, Chaplin=E2=80=99s own voice is heard = directly. Hired as a=20 waiter, the Little Worker is required to stand in for the romantic = caf=C3=A9 tenor.=20 He writes the words on his shirt cuffs, but these fly off with a = too-dramatic=20 flourish; and he is obliged to improvise the song in a wonderful, = mock-Italian=20 gibberish. Chaplin=E2=80=99s voice had already been heard on radio and = in at least one=20 newsreel, but this was the first and only time that the world heard = speech from=20 the Little Tramp.

Apart from this indecision over sound and the changed ending, the = shooting=20 seems to have been fairly untroubled and, by Chaplin=C2=B9s standards, = comparatively=20 fast. It may have helped that the essential structure is neatly devised = in four=20 =E2=80=9Cacts=E2=80=9D each one more or less equivalent to one of his = old two-reel comedies. As=20 the contemporary American critic Otis Ferguson wrote, they might have = been=20 individually titled The Shop, The Jailbird, The Watchman and The Singing = Waiter.

As he had done for City=20 Lights Chaplin composed his own musical score, giving his arrangers = and=20 conductors a harder time than usual, with the result that the = distinguished=20 Hollywood musician Alfred Newman walked off the film.

The film became the victim of a strange charge of plagiarism. The=20 Franco-German firm of Tobis claimed that Chaplin had stolen ideas and = scenes=20 from another classic film about the 20th century industrial world, A = Nous la=20 Libert=C3=A9, directed by Ren=C3=A9 Clair. The case was weak, and Clair, = a great admirer=20 of Chaplin, was deeply embarrassed by it. Yet Tobis persisted, and even = renewed=20 its claims in May 1947, after the Second World War. This time the = Chaplin Studio=20 finally agreed to a modest payment, just to get rid of the nuisance. = Chaplin and=20 his lawyers remained convinced that the determination of the = German-dominated=20 company was revenge for the anti-Nazi sentiment of The Great = Dictator

Happily for posterity, Tobis failed in their original demand to have=20 Chaplin=C2=B9s film permanently suppressed. Instead, Modern Times = survives as=20 a commentary on human survival in the industrial, economic and social=20 circumstances of the 20th century society. It remains as relevant, in = human=20 terms, for the 21st century.

The Challenge of Sound

The arrival of sound films was a bigger challenge for Chaplin than = for any=20 other actor or director. He had won world fame with the universal = language of=20 pantomime. If the Little Tramp now began to speak in English he would = become=20 incomprehensible to a large part of his international audience. In 1931 = he=20 predicted that talking pictures would not last six months, and told an=20 interviewer that =E2=80=99Dialogue may or may not have a place in comedy = . . . dialogue=20 does not have a place in the sort of comedies I make . .. For myself I = know that=20 I cannot use dialogue.=E2=80=99 When the interviewer asked him if he had = tried using=20 speech in his films, he retorted =E2=80=9CI never tried jumping off the = monument in=20 Trafalgar Square, but I have a definite idea that it would be = unhealthful. . .=20 For years I have specialized in one type of comedy =E2=80=93 strictly = pantomime. I have=20 measured it, gauged it, studied. I have been able to establish exact = principles=20 to govern its reactions on audiences. It has a certain pace and tempo. = Dialogue,=20 to my way of thinking, always slows action, because action must wait = upon=20 words.=E2=80=9D

By the time he came to prepare Modern Times = however, it=20 seemed that he had steeled himself to use speech. In the Chaplin = archives there=20 is a dialogue script for all scenes in Modern Times up = to and=20 including the department store sequence. The dialogue which Chaplin = planned for=20 his own character is staccato, quippy, touched with nonsense. He began = to=20 rehearse the dialogue for the scenes in the jail and warden=E2=80=99s = office; but after=20 only a day or so seems to have been deeply dissatisfied with the = results. No=20 more dialogue scenes were to be shot for Modern = Times

Chaplin did proceed with sound effects, however, and took a personal = interest=20 in the technique of their creation. For a scene involving rumbling = stomachs, he=20 created the noises himself by blowing bubbles into a pail of water. The = fact=20 that Chaplin was sufficiently keen to create the effects himself in this = way=20 suggests the extent to which he was intrigued by sound problems at this = time. A=20 memorandum about possible musical effects notes: =E2=80=99Natural sounds = part of=20 composition, i.e. Auto horns, sirens, and cowbells worked into the = music.=E2=80=99 The=20 sound effects, as the Dardennes brothers point out in the accompanying=20 commentary, became an element of the musical score.

The Premieres

Modern = Times was=20 launched more quietly than previous Chaplin films. The film opened in = New York=20 on 5 February 1936, and in London on 11 February. Chaplin and his = co-star=20 Paulette Goddard attended a third and the most glamorous = =E2=80=9Cpremi=C3=A9re=E2=80=9D in Hollywood=20 on 12 February. The venue was Grauman=E2=80=99s Chinese Theatre, which = had opened in=20 1927 as =E2=80=9Ca shrine to art =E2=80=A6 the crowning achievement of a = brilliant career =E2=80=A6 the=20 realization of the vision of a simple soul, a master showman =E2=80=A6 = Sid Grauman=E2=80=9D. The=20 guests were handed programmes designed in lush and glamorous Art Deco = style,=20 printed in black and red on gold paper.

In the past Grauman had devised elaborate live stage shows for = Chaplin=20 premieres, but this time the entertainment was entirely on screen, with = a=20 newsreel, a travelogue, a Technicolor interest film, and the latest = issue of the=20 current documentary series The March of Time =E2=80=93 though, = emphasising its=20 topicality, this was announced as =E2=80=9CSubject to weather conditions = for Air=20 Express=E2=80=9D.

The most notable item in the supporting programme was a new Silly = Symphony=20 from the Walt Disney Studios, Mickey=E2=80=99s Orphan Concert. The = inclusion of this=20 cartoon exemplified an intense mutual admiration between Chaplin and = Disney, who=20 both recognised similarities in the other=E2=80=99s work. Disney bought = advertising=20 space in the programme, =E2=80=9CIn appreciation of the pantomimist = supreme whose=20 inimitable artistry and craftsmanship are timeless=E2=80=9D. It was = signed, =E2=80=9CMickey=20 Mouse and Walt Disney=E2=80=9D.

Text by David Robinson=C2=A9 2004 MK2 = SA

Modern Times

Paulette Godard

The Challenge of Sound

The Premieres

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