"MODERN TIMES."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1936, Page 9 (Supplement)

"MODERN TIMES."

CHAPLIN'S EVOLUTION. FINDING A NEW MANNER.

(By JOHN STORM.)

Is Charlie Chaplin serious in his new film "Modern Times," we ask ourselves, or is ho simply in the mild vein of playful unconstructive satire in which we remember Samuel Butler and his "Erewhon"? The machines in that slightly mischievous work, we remember, were abolished for fear tliey would abolish the human race! Does Charlie Chaplin think something drastic like this must 'be done?

t Wo are just as wise at tlie end of tlie film as at the beginning. But it is brilliant entertainment all the same. Having been the world's funniest man we may conclude that in the same ratio ho might also have been the world's saddest and loneliest! All that is changed and Charlie lets us into what the human race most likes to be let into —a secret! The story opens —as everyone must by this time have heard—with a little man tightening two nuts at a bench in a modern factory in the true Chaplin manner. We watch a belt bring round group after group of two nuts, and we understand and sympathise when Charlie has a nervous breakdown and is taken to a rest home. When ho comes out he is soon in such difficulties that the arm of the law reaches out and grabs him. From that time on he is the same little man with the curly boots, the top hat and cane we knew of yore, fighting his way through the mechanical jungle of modern times. At one moment, Chaplin like, he has seized a red flag from the end of a lorry marked "danger," and instantly he finds himself at tho head of a Communist demonstration. He is put temporarily out of harm's way by the police, who intervene in tho demonstration. But with, the some nonchalant exuberance, in some small corridor melee, he has seized tho keys and locke up, quite by mistake, the dangerous character threatening the minions of the law. Covered with glory he shortly roams tlie world a free man again and rescues Paulette Goddard, as the daughter of an "unemployed," who has fallen in a street light. Much joyous skipping and hopping hand-in-hand down leafy lanes, then goes forward. They pause by the gate of a suburban bridal bungalow, and Charlie decides on a way to "get a. home like that"—to work for it! Further complications then arise as to —how to work, when to work and where? And more trouble follows. Paulette finds herself a dancing job in a cabaret, and when our comes back to her he is struck dumb with her style. She decides he must be a cabarct artist, too; lie must sing! It is hero that the new Chaplin appears. With all the mannerisms of the concert platform, or even the opera itself, ho renders a delightful phantasy -—from the point of view of humour in Charlie language—a melody of sound, Spanish, French and English, in which no words are distinguisha-ble. And if evcryono has tired of the old tricks the film would be worth it all for this single new one! . But no one has tired of the old tricks! Charlie knows his public! Yells of delight greet his antics in the dilapidated hut which Paulette acquires as a homo for them—these are reminiscent of "The Gold Rush." And though Paulette is there she is merely an accessory. Charlie's per for in ii-ncc with tho two nuts in the opening scenes and all tho other absurdities in which he is mechanically mixed, have been greeted with the same joyous yells. In "Modern Times" only Paulette, the machines, tho noises of accompaniment and the song are new, but they tell the simple story of Charlie's own evolution. Charlie used not to like the talkies! Jn silent days ho could continue his dumb show indefinitely. Now that lie must think up something new he has discovered two things—a way to exploit sound in film, and how to attract a new world audience to it. And I do not think ho philosophises much or seriously in the picture. Charlie's yachts and Rolls Koyces in private life are his; under capitalism he has no need to quarrel with' it. . His voice is clear, his speech in the sin"inn- sounds which are all we are allowed to hear of it, is neatly enunciated. Presumably he could mimic anythin". But tenaciously he has clung to the old till fairly on with the now. Hie n-cstures of tho past were those of a "refined" lady. Perhaps they will be exchanged for the gestures of a refined artist! Having made slightly cynical fun of life in the past, he may make slightly cynical fun of art in the future. But he makes no serious statement about industry in the present. His summing up is merely in the words of Puck. He is tho same Charlie with a difference. Although he gives so little of the new personality—only a song and a new kind of walk away in the end —it is complete in itself. Whatever Mr. Chaplin may think of modern times, we know he thinks life on tlie globe a little less lonely. For this time ho takes care to walk away with Paulette. In this faintly autobiographical sketch at least, he has succumbed to modern influences. We all know how fashionable it has become —how much in this age alone to sit down and write one's reminiscences and then to state one's present case. And though the world's own Charlie lias gone to work with a great deal of his old style here w.e have the subtle simplicity of him. He knows that "all the world loves a lover," and that in spite of the fact it still loves people meeting custard pies in transit. Serious minded or trivial he knows his kind. His audience is given what it likes while he thinks up a new manner. Now he has found it.