Modern Times [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Overview

This episodic satire of the Machine Age is considered Charles Chaplin's last "silent" film, although Chaplin uses sound, vocal, and musical effects throughout. 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. Dispirited, she moans, "What's the use of trying?" But the ever-resourceful Chaplin tells her to never say die, and our last image is of Chaplin and The Gamine strolling down a California highway towards new adventures. The plotline of Modern Times is as loosely constructed as any of Chaplin's pre-1915 short subjects, permitting ample space for several of the comedian's most memorable routines: the "automated feeding machine," a nocturnal roller-skating episode, and Chaplin's double-talk song rendition in the nightclub sequence. In addition to producing, directing, writing, and starring in Modern Times, Chaplin also composed its theme song, "Smile," which would later be adopted as Jerry Lewis' signature tune.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/16/2010
UPC:	0715515064712
Original Release:	1936
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[monaural]
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	9,001

Special Features

New, restored 2K-resolution digital transfer, created in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; New audio commentary by Charlie Chaplin biographer David Robinson; Two new visual essays, by Chaplin historians John Bengtson and Jeffrey Vance; New program on the film's visual and sound effects, with experts Craig Barron and Ben Burtt; Interview from 1992 with Modern Times music arranger David Raksin, plus a selection from the film's original orchestral track; Two segments cut from the film; All at Sea (1933), a home movie by Alistair Cooke featuring Chaplin and actress Paulette Goddard, with a new score by Donald Sosin and new interview with Cooke's daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge; The Rink (1916), a Chaplin two-reeler; For the First Tim (1967), a short Cuban documentary about first-time moviegoers seeing Modern Times; Chaplin Today: "Modern Times" (2003), a program with filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne; Three theatrical trailers; Plus: a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Saul Austerlitz and a piece by film scholar Lisa Stein that includes excerpts from Chaplin's writing about his 1930s world tour

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Paulette Goddard	The Gamin
Henry Bergman	Cafe Owner
Chester Conklin	Mechanic,Workman
Tiny Sandford	Big Bill/Worker,Burglar
Hank Mann	Burglar
Louis Natheaux	Burglar
Stanley Blystone	Sheriff Couler
Allan Garcia	Company Boss,President of the Electro Steel Corp.
Sammy Stein	Foreman
Juana Sutton	Woman with Buttoned Bosom
Jack Low	Worker
Walter James	Worker
Richard Alexander	Convict
Cecil Reynolds	Prison Chaplain
Mira McKinney	Chaplain's Wife
Lloyd Ingraham	Prison Governor
John Rand	Convict
Frank Moran	Convict
Murdock MacQuarrie	J. Widdecombe Billows
Wilfred Lucas	Juvenile Officer
Edward Le Saint	Sheriff Couler
Fred Malatesta	Cafe Head Waiter
Ted Oliver	Billows' Assistant
Edward M. Kimball	Doctor
Charlie Chaplin	A Worker,Composer
Norman Ainsley	Actor
Bobby Barber	Worker
Gloria DeHaven	Gamin's Sister
Chuck Hamilton	Worker
James Morton	Assembly Worker
Harry Wilson	Worker
Frank Hagney	Shipbuilder
Alfred Newman	Composer

Technical Credits

Charles Chaplin

Charles Chaplin

Screenwriter,Producer,Director

Editorial Reviews

Charles Chaplin's last "silent" film hilariously satirizes Depression-era social ills through the Tramp's disastrous encounters with the industrial age. Chaplin turns his factory worker's nervous breakdown into comic set pieces involving an automated feeding machine, an inability to stop tightening bolts, and, most famously, his entrapment in machinery gears. In a potent satire of authoritarian idiocy, Chaplin repeatedly ends up in jail for stumbling into worker riots and "Communist" protests, yet his ability to quell a prison break while accidentally hopped up on cocaine (!!) earns him the sheriff's respect. Paulette Goddard's fetching Gamin helps Chaplin find work as a singing waiter, but police intervention leaves their togetherness as their only hope. Accompanied by a Chaplin-composed score (including "Smile") and synchronized sound effects, numerous bits of business showcase Chaplin's silent gift for physical comedy, including a department store roller skate and maneuvers with a food tray. In a send-up of talking pictures and technology's dehumanizing effects in general, the only voices heard in the movie (save for Chaplin's gibberish song and his fellow waiters' warbling) come from the factory's Orwellian telescreen P.A. system, a phonograph, and a radio. Three years in production, Modern Times became another international success for Chaplin (though it was banned in Germany and Italy) and one of the signature works of his career.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola