| Company: |
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United Artists |
| Year: |
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1936 |
| Genre: |
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Comedy |
| Runtime: |
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87 min. |
| Country: |
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USA |
| Language: |
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English |
| Color: |
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Black & White |
| Sound Mix: |
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Mono |
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Technical Specifications
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DZISIEJSZE CZASY
Modern Times
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| Directed by: |
|
Charles Chaplin |
| Writing credits: |
|
Charles Chaplin |
| Produced by: |
|
Charles Chaplin |
| Original Music: |
|
Charles Chaplin |
| Film Editing by: |
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Willard Nico |
| Cinematography: |
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Roland Totheroh
Ira H. Morgan |
| Second Unit Director or Assistant Director: |
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Carter DeHaven
Henry Bergman |
| Casting by: |
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Al Ernest Garcia |
| Camera Operator: |
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Mark Marlatt |
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more: photo gallery |
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Cast overview:
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| 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 |
.... |
Cellmate |
| Cecil Reynolds |
.... |
Minister |
| Mira McKinney |
.... |
Minister's wife |
| Murdock MacQuarrie |
.... |
J. Widdecombe Billows |
| Wilfred Lucas |
.... |
Juvenile officer |
| Edward LeSaint |
.... |
Sheriff Couler |
| Fred Malatesta |
.... |
Head waiter |
| Sammy Stein |
.... |
Turbine operator |
| Juana Sutton |
.... |
Woman with buttoned bosom |
| Ted Oliver |
.... |
Billows' assistant |
| Norman Ainsley |
.... |
Billows' assistant |
| Bobby Barber |
.... |
Worker |
| Heinie Conklin |
.... |
Assembly line worker next to Big Bill |
| Gloria DeHaven |
.... |
Gamin's sister |
Trivia:
Supposedly was to be Charles Chaplin's first full sound film, but instead, sound is used in a unique way: we hear spoken voices only when they come from mechanical devices, a symbol of the film's theme of technology and dehumanization. Specifically, voices are heard from:
The videophones used by the factory president
The phonographic Mechanical Salesman
The radio in the prison warden's office
The singers in the restaurant are also heard, and some scenes include sound effects.
The Little Tramp's last words before his final fade out after more than 22 years as a screen icon: "Smile! C'mon!" (it is easy to read Charles Chaplin's lips at the very end of the film).
Charles Chaplin allows the Tramp to speak on camera for the first time during the restaurant scene, but insisted that what the Tramp says be universal. Therefore, the song the Tramp sings is in gibberish, but it is possible to follow the story he tells by watching his hand gestures.
Charles Chaplin wrote all the music for this and all of his other films, and this picture contains his most enduring song, "Smile."
Paulette Goddard's character's name is Ellen Peterson.
The film originally ended with Charles Chaplin's character suffering a nervous breakdown and being visited in hospital by the gamin, who has now become a nun. This ending was filmed, though apparently only still photographs from the scene exist today (they are included in the 2003 DVD release of the film). Chaplin dropped this ending and shot a different, more hopeful ending instead.
This was one of the films which, because of its political sentiments, convinced the House Un-American Activities Committee that Charles Chaplin was a Communist, a charge he adamantly denied. He left to live in Switzerland, vowing never to return to America.
A full dialogue script was written for the film, as Charles Chaplin had intended to make a complete talkie. According to a documentary on the DVD release, Chaplin went so far as to film a scene with full dialogue before deciding instead to make a partial talkie.
Discounting later parodies and novelty films, this was the last major American film to make use of silent film conventions such as title cards for dialogue. The very last dialogue title card of this film (and thus, it can be said, the entire silent era) belongs to The Tramp, who says "Buck up - never say die! We'll get along."
Co-star Paulette Goddard actually made significant story contributions.
France's Tobis Studios sued Charles Chaplin for plagiarizing the conveyor belt sequence from René Clair's A nous la liberté (1931) but dropped the suit when Clair declared himself honored by the tribute, saying, "I have certainly borrowed enough from him."
According to a fall 1935 issue of Variety, Charles Chaplin was expected to run behind schedule on the release of the movie as he tweaked the soundtrack. He also wanted to chop over 1,000 feet of film from his then existing cut.
According to Paulette Goddard, Chaplin was deeply and profoundly involved in the recording of the musical score. He spent days upon days in the recording studio writing themes, and only left when Paulette begged him.
Synopsis:
Man vs. machine! And the winner is every comedy fan when Charlie Chaplin's Tramp confronts assembly-line woes in this classic chosen in 1998 as one of the American Film Institute's Top-100 American Films. The Little Tramp punches in and wigs out inside a factory where gizmos like an employee-feeding machine may someday make the lunch hour last just 15 minutes. Bounced into the ranks of the unemployed, he teams with a street waif (Paulette Goddard) to pursue bliss and a paycheck, finding misadventures as a roller-skating night watchman, a singing waiter whose hilarious song is gibberish, a jailbird and more. In the end, as Tramp and waif walk arm and arm into an insecure future, we know they've found neither bliss nor a paycheck but, more importantly, each other. The times and satire remain timeless in Modern Times.
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