Exclusive“Modern Times” (1936): First Silent Film

Smile, though your heart is aching. Smile, even though it's breaking. When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by if you smile. Through your fear and sorrow, smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see the sun come shining through for you. Light up your face with gladness. Hide every trace of sadness. Although a tear may be ever so near, that's the time you must keep on crying. Smile, what's the use of crying? You'll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile. Excuse me, young lady. Could you direct me to the state penitentiary? Didn't you hear what I said? What's that you've got behind your back? Why, if I didn't know better, I'd say you're wanted by the authorities. That's it. I recognize your picture. You're that little gammon who escaped from the juvenile officers. Oh, you can't get away that easily. Don't play dumb with me. These miming addicts might have worked in some old silent film, but these are modern times. I'm Tiffany Brannan, this is Rebecca Brannan, and this is Peanut. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. I have to admit, after actually watching this film, I kind of wondered if it really was a good choice for this because I don't know if any modern young person would have the patience to sit through it. Really? Yes, I just thought, it's not that it's boring, it's very exciting, but with the lack of dialogue, it's just so different from anything you see nowadays. I don't know if the attention span is strong enough in modern culture. That's true, but I noticed that talkies from the 1930s tend to be much more fast-paced than the average modern film. Well, that's actually a good point. They'll focus more on a very dramatic moment, a long shot, or a close-up of someone with no dialogue, just an expression for a very long time, just use the sweeping background music to kind of propel it. It never fails to baffle me how few people know about the transition from silent films to sound films and when that really happened. Absolutely, and you can't really appreciate or fully understand the golden era of Hollywood unless you know about that transition that happened in the very technical aspect of filmmaking. It all took place around the late 20s and early 30s, very close to when the crash, the start of the Great Depression, happened. That's interesting, isn't it? It is interesting. There are examples of sound film technology as far back as the late 19th century, but in terms of when it actually became mainstream, it all started in 1926 with Don Juan having the first synchronised soundtrack, and then more famously, the jazz singer with Al Jolson in 1927. Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing yet. Consider the first mainstream talkie. But it wasn't all talking, the sound of singing was synchronised, and one or two lines, but most of the actual dialogue was still with title cards. You'd see the people's mouths moving, and then a title card would come up saying basically what they said. I think that's a genre that existed for a while there that people don't know as much. They think of a straight silent film or a complete talkie, but the half and half, the partial talkie, I don't think that's something that's talked about enough. And you find it from 1927 through at least 1930, if not 1931. And then interesting things like sound effects, how there would be sound effects featured in some later silent films. Yes, by 1929, I'd say basically every film had a synchronised soundtrack because before that, they played it live. You had your organist, your pianist, even your orchestra, because there was just no sound, it was just a picture. But at that point then, you saw people talking, they had the title cards, but you heard a background track that was made and recorded, and maybe you'd hear a gunshot, a book falling on a floor, a bell ringing. It's interesting. Quite often, there wasn't a set score for a film, is that right? That is true. They would just play whatever music they came up with. Before the synchronised soundtrack, there usually wasn't. The organist or pianist usually would just make something up because it would be kind of difficult to send out sheet music to every group because different places had different things. Some had organists, some had pianists, some had little orchestras. Many of them may not have been able to read music. But one exception to that would be films made by the famous Charlie Chaplin, right? That's right. That's an interesting fact. He was a composer himself, so he would often write some kind of a soundtrack and at least at the Hollywood premiere, he'd be handing out music to all the players in the orchestra. Speaking of Charlie Chaplin, he plays a very interesting role in the transition to sound. Right. Because he was the famous silent comedian. One of the famous, of course. But I think that image of the character he created, the little tramp, with a little bowler hat, a little moustache, really white makeup, black curly hair, very short, he was only 5'5". Big shoes and a small coat and a walking stick. I think even people who don't know anything about old movies or silent films have seen some image of him like that. Absolutely. Or somebody parodying him. Yes. And that character of the little tramp was one he played in a bunch of different films as far back as 1970. To the point that I would say very few people know what Charlie Chaplin actually looked like. See a picture of Charlie Chaplin, he's unrecognizable. Because it was a fake moustache, he wore a wig. He was quite a handsome fellow, actually. Fair, actually. Was he kind of white-colored hair? It was a lighter brown, I would say. Not the stark black. But he created that character just when he was an extra in a silent film. Really? He just found some old clothes in the costume room. Found a way to make himself stand out. Exactly. And that character, people were saying he was outdated even by the late 20s because he'd been doing it for a long time. And then with the transition to sound, he didn't really make that transition right away. And then in 1931, which by that point, everybody was doing talking pictures, he made City Lights, still a silent film. Interesting. And then he spent years trying to decide what his next project would be. And originally it was going to be a talking picture because he was terrified of being behind the times. Right. But he wanted to do a final farewell to the little tramp. And he just said it wouldn't translate to sound. The little tramp couldn't talk, it just wouldn't be right. Because he thought that character was universal. And with dialogue, now it's limited. Only people who speak English can really appreciate it. That's really fascinating. So he quickly scrapped it after writing a script and filming a scene and he decided, no, it has to be silent. And that leads us to our choice for your first silent film, Modern Times from 1936. An ironic title for the last of the silent films. Yes, it is. And that wasn't originally going to be the title. There were several other titles in the works, but it is ironic. And I think he did mean that as an ironic thing. And it co-stars Paulette Goddard, who was his wife at the time. And you'll see the name Charlie Chaplin a lot in the opening credits because he was the director, he wrote it, he starred in it. Definitely. And not a whole lot of other really well-known actors in it. Right. But it's a fascinating film. The story is kind of a difficult one to put into a synopsis because as a lot of silent films, especially comedies are, it's more of a series of skits. But it basically follows the little tramp as he's kind of trying to make his way in the modern world. I think that's why it's called Modern Times. The machine age, he's working in this factory. And he's just going around and keeps trying to get a job and he just always gets into some kind of trouble, usually not of his own fault. He just gets into bad situations. And along the way he encounters this young girl, an orphan. She's not orphaned when we first meet her, but her father dies quite soon. She's very poor, she has to steal to help support her two sisters. And then they get taken away by the juvenile officers, but she runs away. And then she meets him and they decide to band together and they're determined to make a home for themselves. But it seems like things just go wrong for them at every turn, but they keep going nonetheless. Yes. This film is an example of the genre you mentioned, the partial talkie. That's right. It is considered the last silent film. I didn't realize it was a partial talkie until watching it and then I was shocked when there was talking. Of course, there's a synchronized soundtrack composed largely by Chaplin himself. Although he really wasn't a formally trained musician, he also worked with Alfred Newman and David Raskin to create this score, but the melodies were his. And David Raskin mentioned how he would come up with amazing melodies and then other composers would help him figure out how to really write it down in a coherent way. So we have his great soundtrack, which also integrated some pop tunes of the day, including pieces like Hallelujah, I'm a Bum. Every time he's unemployed, you hear Hallelujah, I'm a Bum playing in the background. There also is a little bit of dialogue in addition to sound effects. Gunshots. It's only sort of recorded, though. In the first scene... It's always a recorded sound to further that message about the machine age and mechanization. Until a scene where he performs a musical number and he sings. And was that the first time audiences heard his voice? Yes, it was. That was the first time in one of his movies his voice was heard. And again, he doesn't talk, but he sings this cute nonsense song. You might wonder, but it is his actual voice. You can just tell somehow. It just doesn't sound like the kind of voice they would use to overdub. The first voice you hear is the voice of the factory owner at the steel mill where he works. And you hear his voice speaking to all his employees. Kind of over a screen. Yes, and they actually say that George Orwell was inspired for creating Big Brother in the famous book 1984, which came out in the next decade, in the 40s, because no matter where the little tramp, who's known as the factory worker in the movie, no matter where he goes, there's that face. He even goes into the bathroom to have a smoke break and you say, what are you doing? Get back to work. That's so funny. I saw it and I was like, oh, it's like Big Brother. So this was first, of course. It's amazing how that kind of became such a cultural phenomenon. But a lot of people, I think, were inspired by Charlie Chaplin's work and still are. Yes. It's timeless in its way. And I think because of what he was going for with it being universal, I think that makes it not so stuck in an era either. Yeah, and I think that's why people can appreciate it who aren't necessarily classic film fans. Right, and even the clothes, the famous clothes that the little tramp wears, they were outdated at the time. Yes. So he's already outdated, so he can't lose. And the most famous melody from this is the love theme, which is actually the melody of the song Smile. Famous Great American Songbook standard now. And it doesn't have any words in the movie. It actually, the melody is slightly different toward the end. It's more classical. It is. And it was adapted into a popular song in 1954, and Nat King Cole debuted it. Now, I heard that Charlie Chaplin wasn't too happy that his love theme was turned into a little ditty, but the words are inspired by the theme of this movie. Definitely. Especially the final scene. Yes. As he tells the girl, who's called the gammon, to, you know, smile, buck up, smile. And so that's the theme. Smile. And it represents the whole spirit of the little tramp and the silent comedian. Right. Now, would you say this was a bit more of a serious turn for Little Tramp because this was made during the Depression? That is an interesting point. So it brought in, I think, some different themes than the ones in the Roaring Twenties. Yes, this is very much a story of the Great Depression. And Chaplin came up with this idea originally because of a conversation he had with Mahatma Gandhi in Europe as they were talking about how the automation of the world was really destroying people's humanity. And Gandhi expressed that. And at first, Chaplin wasn't sure he agreed with that. He thought maybe there are some good things that come with technology, but then he realized he was right. It really was leading to a lack of dignity and opportunity for the individual. Right. And that's very real in the Great Depression. And I would say that this movie doesn't shy away at all from depicting the Great Depression. No. Which not that many movies did. That's true. People wanted to go to forget about that. But it does it in such a lighthearted way that it never feels depressing. It's always very hopeful. It is. But the way you see he gets laid off from work and there's a strike and factories are closed down, those are all Depression-era themes. And her family, before her father dies, is a fundamental father among the unemployed. Right. And the idea of being someone who can't get work and it's just there is no job, and then people are rushing to go when they hear that the job has opened up. That opening scene where he's just doing this repetitive job on the assembly line, I think that's really showing people become part of an assembly line. Yes. And how after he's tightening these with two wrenches, sort of tightening rivets. Yes. And how whenever he finishes, then he keeps walking around still doing that movement because it's like he's become part of the machine. Even to the point of going into the machine when he gets on the conveyor belt. And that opening conveyor belt scene has inspired so many things, including the famous I Love Lucy scene with the chocolates, where she and Ethel can't keep up with the conveyor belt. It's the same idea. But that shot when he goes into those gears, that's very famous. Yes. And just amazing technology, really, to film something like that. I think that this movie is really interesting because it's the only code silent film. Right. Since it was made so long after the silent era. In 1934, the PCA, or Production Code Administration, took over the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code. First put in place in 1930, but not enforced properly until 1934. That's right. And it continued to be enforced very well by the head of the PCA, Joseph I. Breen, until 1954 when he retired. It was officially replaced by the rating system in 1968. Now, people talk about the Hays Code, as they commonly call it, incorrectly. And these rules that it had, oftentimes very misunderstood. Right. You might think that all these problems in films, with all the indecency and lewd humour, things that came up, they became very popular in the early 30s, with the early talkies. And that was when this whole issue came to a head. But the fact that the code was written in 1929, and first technically adopted in 1930, shows that silent films had some problems too. Absolutely. So, it is interesting to see how the code was enforced in a silent film. Definitely. Because this is the only example. And there were a few issues that the PCA asked them to keep an eye on. The three would be the use of cocaine in the prison scene, the implication of what was considered perverted relationship between two prisoners, and to make sure that there was nothing suggestive about the relationship between the little tramp and the gammon. And they dealt with all these issues very succinctly, without destroying the comedic nature of Chaplin's genius. Yeah, I was kind of interested in the scene about cocaine. Was there not a clause about drugs in the code yet? Was that added later? A more specific clause was added later. But originally, there was a title card that referred to dope. And they said, don't do that. So instead, they referred to it as nose powder. Yes, more sophisticated people know it's a reference to cocaine, particularly because he starts acting strange after that. But the fact that rather than it being morally degrading, which drugs usually are, it gives him courage to stop a prison break. So the rationale was that it made him more moral, so it was all right. And the fact that it wasn't mentioned specifically by name, cocaine, or even dope. And you do see another prisoner, sort of a big hulking fellow, doing needlepoint. But nothing more was made of that. So that was... Yeah, I just thought it was a joke. And so it was a hulking fellow. It just was a joke. There was nothing more as there was in the original draft. That's interesting. Yeah, even though sometimes it's kind of hard, just as a modern viewer, to not see things that sometimes I don't think is even intended. Or was very subtle. Yeah, I didn't get that feeling at all. And I think they handled it really well. There was the issue of the gammon and little tramp were technically living in this shack together, but he was out in a little woodshed, and she was sleeping on the floor in the house. So I thought that was... It was very sweet. And his relationship with her, his demeanor toward her is very caring. Yeah, very protecting and considerate. Even though she's obviously supposed to be really young, because they talk about the juvenile officers, but she was not. Of course, she was a young woman at the time. Yeah, she was, I think, 25. But I think she's quite convincing. You could think she's 16 or 17. And just the amount of talent that you see displayed by Charlie Chaplin in this movie is amazing. Just such a plethora of skills. In addition to that, he did so much behind-the-scenes work on the movie, which you see, but you don't know exactly what he did. His physical comedy is just amazing, between going into the factory, doing stunts, amazing roller skating in the opening. He's dancing around in the factory. He's a really good dancer. Yes, very light-footed. And she dances a bit, too. And then, of course, singing. And the song is... The joke is that he can't remember the words, and she writes them on his cuff, and then he accidentally throws his cuffs off when he's doing his little opening dance. So it sounds like he's singing French, but it's not actually, right? He's making it up? Yes, it's a strange mixture of some French, I actually heard some French words, some Italian, a little Spanish, and just some gibberish that he made up. Because, again, he thought, if I sing in any one language, I'm not communicating to part of the audience. So by making it a nonsense language, he's communicating to everybody and pantomiming so that you can see the story. You really get exactly what he's talking about in the song because he's doing such specific miming and just something as we, as directors, like, take notes, folks, this is how to make up words in a song because it's very convincing. And there's that amazing roller skating scene, which he does in the department store. Do you know if that was an optical illusion at all? Yes, it was. They used a matte painting, so they actually painted it to look like there's this huge drop because he's skating around blindfolded, and there wasn't actually a drop-off, but he's doing some very impressive roller skating. Oh, it's impressive even without that, but I was like, it looks really convincing, but he's a little crazy, probably not that crazy. He wanted to live to make another film. Paulette Goddard was a very famous classic actress, but this was her feature film debut. She'd made other movies over the course of several years, but this was the first time she was credited and her first starring role. She was actually one of the Goldwyn girls, sort of a chorus girl. And she would be the last actress to make her debut in a silent film. She often said, I'm the only actress who can say I made my silent film debut in 1936 because it is so unusual, and she does a great job. Many people at the time commented that she was more of an important character than any leading lady he'd ever used. Before, they were more just the damsel in distress, the girl, but she's an important character. Definitely. And a very human character. And she adds more humanity to the little tramp because of her character. And she and Charlie Chaplin had been going together since 1932, and they always said they were married in 1936, which is the same time the movie was released, in China. It's hard to find legal record of that, but take their word for it, I suppose. So you see the bond that they did have between each other. I think that's what makes this film so powerful. Whenever you can see people's real emotions or people's real relationships on screen, that's very moving to watch. And it's just interesting seeing more modern audience reactions. If you look up the clip of the final scene on YouTube, just looking at the comments section, there are so many people saying that this is the best Enigma movie in film history. And it's so beautiful, and so many people find it so moving. Just that shot of them walking away in the music can just make you cry. Especially, I think, looking at it from after the song was written, the song Smile, every time you hear that theme, you're thinking about the words, and I think the lyrics to that song are very beautiful. They do reflect the film. And the last title card is him saying, you know, Buck up, never say die, but there's a very obvious line you can read after that without a title card where right before they're walking away, he tells her to smile. And then it swells in the background, and she's like, I didn't cry, but I almost did. I came pretty close, and we're watching, and she's like, oh, I didn't expect this, you know, kind of silent comedy. I didn't expect it to, you know, tug at my heartstrings that much at the end, but it was really touching. And I think that's the thing about these movies, that even as real, we're real classic film fans ourselves, but, you know, no one has seen everything. There's always more to discover. And to be surprised, to say, I didn't expect to like this film that much, or to be that moved, and to be that impressed. Yeah, I expected to be impressed by it in a different way, but not necessarily the way that it struck me. It was not at all what I was expecting, but it was very inspiring. I think a really great artist, like Charlie Chaplin, inspires other people, and I'm being a creative person, like, it gave me a lot of inspiration for other projects. Yeah, and I think that you really could appreciate the fast pace, and some silent films are easier to watch than others, and since this one is a comedy, it relies on visual comedy. Right. And you can appreciate that without sound, and you've got a really cute soundtrack to keep it going. I think it'll teach you a lot about the Great Depression, and I respect how she doesn't look too good in the opening part of the film, because that was something you don't see a lot in old Hollywood. Yeah, her hair is kind of greasy, and her face is dirty. And I understand that put a bit of a strain on their relationship, because she came looking all nice, and he, like, dumped water on her head, and he was like, you look too good, you gotta look dirty. Gotta look messy. But it says on IMDB, she isn't wearing makeup. She's wearing makeup, you can see she's wearing mascara, but she's wearing less makeup. Especially by silent film standards. Yeah, no one is wearing as much makeup in that film as he is. I think it's interesting, yeah, he's the only one still wearing, like, silent film type makeup. His makeup was always over the top, but the other people are quite underplayed in terms of makeup, and he's just like, whew. But she gets cuter in terms of her clothes throughout, because eventually she gets a job, and she's able to get a cute little dress. My outfit is inspired by her nice dress once she gets a job and some money. It's a very similar design to this, in a similar pattern with buttons, and a charming little hat, almost akin to a bonnet, with black stockings, somewhat unusual for the time, and little black shoes. My outfit is modeled on really the other prominent female character, the minister's wife, whom the little tramp meets when he's in prison, because she and her husband come to minister to the inmates there. She's wearing a dress with a pattern similar to this in the standard 1930s style of having a looser blouse top with a band at the waist and a brooch. She also is wearing a little black hat, glasses in the opening, and her most charming accessory is a cute little Pekingese dog, so I have our dog Peanut here as an accessory of that kind. It's no wonder that this movie is on all the lists of great films to see, and it's recognized by many different film institutes as an excellent film just in the art of filmmaking. And it also is very, I think, ironic to watch it as your introduction to a genre because it's the end of an era, the final farewell to the silent film era as they're walking off in the sunset in that slightly fast pace because it was filmed a little faster as silent films were because it made the antics even funnier, so he did that on purpose. And so as you see them walking off into the sunset, that was really the end of the silent era which hasn't been revived since in all these years, 90 years now, besides some little independent projects, but no mainstream film has been made because I think, as Chaplin realized, it was the end of an era and you really can't top it. There were so many great films that were silent, and after that, even he had to delve into making talking pictures. It's something that I think modern Hollywood could do very well to understand when you've done enough of something and it's done and you need to stop and I think that's something a lot of modern filmmakers could do well to learn. But we can enjoy going back and watching these movies and then continuing to explore them. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing more Charlie Chaplin films, both silent and his next picture which was a talking picture, The Great Dictator from 1940. I'm looking forward to seeing what he did with dialogue. That would be very interesting. But for those of you who want to discover this film, Modern Times, it's very easy to find, oftentimes for free because it is so well-known and recognizable. You can watch it for free on Amazon Prime Video and on many other streaming services. I think it's available for free on YouTube or you can buy it on many streaming services or on DVD. It's widely available and very clear, beautiful, crisp copies and it's under an hour and a half long so I think you'll find it a very painless way to start your silent film journey. This film, like so many, features a really beautiful romance and we see so many wonderful sweet relationships in classic films. But another relationship which is also highlighted a lot is familiar relationships and most notably wonderful mothers. Join us next week as we talk about one of the great mothers of classic cinema. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.