I know most people hear silent movie and their eyes glaze over. There aren't many that I would argue you must see, but at least one Chaplin movie is essential just to see this genius in action. Charlie Chaplin is an icon for a reason. His voice was unique and brilliant. He was a true auteur before the term became vogue. He not only wrote, directed and acted in his pictures, he wrote the music and even did most of the editing. Which is his best movie? Many would say the one before this, City Lights, I can't really argue with that, it's also a wonderful movie, but this is my personal favorite, maybe because his co-star is his then wife Paulette Goddard. For whatever reason I prefer it, so I am writing about this first. I might also add that this is not an entirely silent movie. The leads do not speak, (though the tramp does sing -- in french) but some of the minor characters do - only, interestingly enough, those with power.
Synopsis:
The movie begins by looking a bit of an homage to Metropolis. It shoes sheep being herded then shows factory workers from a similar angle looking the same as the move from subway to factory floor. Meanwhile the president of the company is doing a jigsaw puzzle and reading the comics in the newspaper. He gives orders to speed up the line forcing the workers, including charlie to work faster than it would seem to be humanly possible. The Tramp's (Charlie's) job is to tighten two nuts on each piece of machinery that passes by. He does this act so often that when his brake comes he can't stop moving his hands in that motion. The dehumanizing conditions in the factory only go downhill from there. After being caught in this machinery of capitalism (literally) for too long Charlie finally has a break down and loses it on the factory floor.
Next we see Charlie being released from the hospital cured, but unemployed. Almost immediately after his release he lands, unfairly, in jail. Meanwhile, we meet the delightful "gamin" (Paulette Goddard) (too old to be playing a gamin but we can overlook this) as she steals food for herself and other hungry waterfront kids. Despite hers and her unemployed father's best efforts, her two youngest sisters are taken away to an orphanage.
Charlie is let out of jail when his innocence is determined but he regrets the loss of the steady meals and a bed. In his efforts to get sent back to jail, he tries to take the fall for Paulette when she is caught staling a loaf of bread. They are two of the poorest of the poor, unemployed and without prospects who find themselves joining forces first as friends then, maybe, as something more. Charlie convinces her that one must smile and carry on even during the hardest of times, a popular message during the depression and the idea that led to the lyrics of the song "Smile" the music of which is first heard here.
This is a lovely, moving film that manages to combine romantic comedy and social commentary brilliantly. Keep in mind this came out in the depths of the depression, union fever was growing as workers became more discouraged by conditions. Rather than being a diatribe against the owners, the movie uses comedy and satire to make it's point. Meanwhile, Paulette Goddard is such an engaging presence that one cannot help getting caught up in the romance. It's interesting the limited way that Chaplin experiments with sound in this movie. By 1936 almost no one else in Hollywood was making silent pictures and one get's the sense of a compromise being struck in this movie between Charlie, worried that the tramp character could not survive the shift to sound and the forces arguing for modernization. It's the last gasp for Charlie, however, as his next film The Great Dictator is largely a talking movie (another great Chaplin movie if you just can't handle silent).The movie is short by today's standards, only 87 minutes so it won't take much investment to see what all the idolatry of Charlie is all about.
Director .........................................................Charles Chaplin
Writer ...........................................................Charles Chaplin
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
Allan Garcia .................................................Factory President
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