Modern Times

Austin and Andrew discuss the penultimate silent film and it's larger than life star

Austin Lugo: All right, before we get started today, next week we're going to be watching Piazza. This is a Bollywood film, a genre of. That has been completely off of my radar. I can say with some confidence that I've never seen a Bollywood film before. I've seen a couple of films by Indian directors, but honestly, I could probably count the number of Indian films I've seen on one hand.

Thoughts on Bollywood films, Andrew? It's not a Bollywood

Andrew Harp: film, but I do think that like in the United States, you know, there are different film cultures in different areas. You know, I think that the best movie that came out this year was up an Indian movie, which was r r r, A movie that I think you should still watch.

Amazing movie. But yeah, other than that, I haven't really watched a lot of Indian movies. Uh, definitely a bit of a, uh, a blind spot. Gotta watch more.

Austin Lugo: Well, now's your chance, but this week we're watching a movie that somehow you've never seen before. One of sight and sounds considered greatest film of dwell time.

One of Charlie Chaplin's most famous films modern times. It's debatable. I mean, what would be more famous than Modern times? Like city lights? Yeah. Yeah, I

Andrew Harp: guess so. So I saw City Lights when I was a kid, but I haven't seen it since then, so I might as well have not seen it. But there are things about it that I remember a little bit.

There's that scene where they're like by Canal or something like that, and they're like, Charlie Chap was doing a lot of slipping and stuff, and I kind of remember the romance part of the movie as well, a little bit. I was gonna watch it this week, but I just didn't get around to. .

Austin Lugo: That's all right. I mean, Charlie Chaplin, of course, one of the three great silent film stars.

Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Caden. Charlie Chaplin is probably the most successful of the three. Him and Harold Lloyd both, uh, created their own production company, but Charlie Chaplin is probably the most popular of the time and also the only one that seemed to really be able to. Function in the era of sound, which speaking of sound and talkies, this film is kind of strange in the sense that it was May, 1936.

So the jazz singer came out in 1928, so there had been talkies for about eight years. The silent eras kind of very quickly dwindling down. There's not a lot of silent films that come out in the thirties, and yet despite this, he just really likes silent film. Yeah, he just doesn't give a shit. I

Andrew Harp: mean, yeah, there is like talking in the movie, but never much.

Austin Lugo: I think there's some interesting things done with sound for sure. You know, especially with like whenever he is at the factory or you know, some of the sounds of police officers or uh, the talking salesman that's like played on a record. Yeah, that's cool. But otherwise, I mean, it's pretty much a silent film, which thinking.

The silent film stars, they seem almost uninterested in films about talking and, and kind of listening to the process in which Buster Keaton wrote his films. And that's not necessarily to say that Charlie Chap Harold Lloyd did the same thing, but it seems to be of the era is. often these silent film stars didn't really have scripts.

It was kind of just like they had a basic idea of what the film was, which I would say modern times is kind of just a series of skits, just like the general or the freshman or kind of any of these, uh, famous silent films. And then they just came up with a bunch of gags for each skit. , but there was no like over lining plot or anything like that.

Like it's just a series of skits and it kind of just loosely comes together to be a feature film. I would

Andrew Harp: agree. Which I'm okay with because that's good. Uh, comedy movie, uh, thinking for sure is to kind of, you know, really kind of like stick to you and develop those gags. and there's some, there's some really good ones in modern times.

A lot of stuff that looks familiar to me. Just like stuff like I, I've seen like a few, like Charlie Chaplin, like short films and like, I think there's one where he is like skating and this movie he skates. I don't know, there were some like gags in locations that looked a little familiar to me. I think there are some things that, uh, really, uh, work well he's found

Austin Lugo: by this point.

He definitely know. What works for him and what doesn't. And of course in this film kind of plays a tramp character. I mean not, he's not like the tramp the same way he is and like the kid, or, I dunno what you mean by that, by the tramp character. Like, what do you mean by that? So like in most of Charlie Chaplain's films, he plays the same character, which is the Tramp.

And so he, he has like this specific type of dress. It's like these really baggy pants and kind of like this torment up button coat. It's. Sort of

Andrew Harp: supposed to be, but how is that character different at modern times than in others? Like what do you mean? Well,

Austin Lugo: in modern times, he is not really the tramp character cuz he doesn't have his traditional tramp dress.

So like typically what he's wearing when he is the tramp is like these really baggy pants with like a bunch of holes in him cuz he basically wears. Tuxedo, but it's like this really torn out tuxedo. So it's supposed to be this juxtaposition because of course, like his early films came out in the 1920s, so it's supposed to be this juxtaposition between the roaring twenties, but then also the kind of impoverished man where in this film he's more of a.

I mean, he's still is a similar character, right? He's kind of just this man who fumbles from one success to the other. But I think

Andrew Harp: that's he, he's down and out. He doesn't have any money. But this

Austin Lugo: kind of differentiates himself, I think, from a lot of his films, because in most of his films, like it's just a series of unfortunate events.

But you could argue that modern times is just a series of fortunate events. Like it kind of just fumbles himself from one success to another. But in the end, they're unsuccess. . Yeah, I guess that's true. But I mean, like, you know, all of the in between parts, they, they seem to do pretty well. I

Andrew Harp: don't, no. He loses all of his jobs.

He gets jobs and then he loses 'em

Austin Lugo: right away. Well that's kind of just cuz he is really bad at all the jobs he does. Yeah. Is he bad? Like

Andrew Harp: I always kind of just seems like he has really

Austin Lugo: bad luck. Well, I mean, the best way to do it is just run through the different jobs he has and kind of see if it's luck or not.

So he is got, he's got his first job, which of course is a Fritz Lang style, Fred Roma's

Andrew Harp: famous scene in the movie. The whole, that

Austin Lugo: whole part. The whole, uh, him working what with like two screwdrivers. He's like tightening bolts. That doesn't even matter. Doesn't even matter. ,

Andrew Harp: he's, he's working on a factory and he's gotta do a thing

Austin Lugo: very fast.

He's gotta do a thing very fast. They all have, they're one thing they gotta do and there's this big brother style boss who's got like these giant ass TVs. Yeah, that shit was awesome. . The design of the factory is probably one of my favorite designs in the film and probably one of my favorite sets of all time.

It's just a really, Creative, interesting and terrifying set. It's weird and awesome to kind of look at, uh, these kind of predictions of the future from like the 19. Twenties and thirties, you know, kind of similar to Metropolis because you know, there's some kind of surreal aspects to it, like things that get right, you know, kind of like the big Brother, giant cameras and

Andrew Harp: stuff.

And then, yeah, just kind of like, uh, employees being constantly, uh, monitored about their employers and stuff like that. Maybe not as literal as the in modern times, but it's about the same.

Austin Lugo: Brandon told me this story where he used to work at Punch Pizza, which was this local pizza chain in Minneapolis and.

There's the story, which who knows if it's true or not, but supposedly the owner of the small Franchise Punch Pizza, which had like four or five locations, he had cameras in each and every kitchen that, uh, were all direct feeds to his house. And supposedly in his house, he had a room where he would watch people make, uh, punch pizza for pizza accuracy.

And this wasn't like, just like, Urban legend, like this is something that on like training day, like they would tell their employees. Wow, that's cool.

Andrew Harp: That's awesome. That's a little fucked up, but

Austin Lugo: okay. , I don't know if it's true or not, but the fact that they tell their employees that like even if it's not true, it's still pretty disturbing.

Andrew Harp: Yeah, I don't, I don't like that at all. They also do it in other ways, not just cameras. Right. They do it like going on your computer, you know, they might be able to like track what you're doing on your like office computer or something like that. So that kind of. Can can happen in many different ways other than, you know, staring at someone like through a camera or seeing if they're doing something right.

They can also like kind of monitor you in other ways that are very, uh, bad .

Austin Lugo: Yeah. But in this case, Charlie Chaplin is just a poor lowly factory worker, just, uh, tightening some bolts. And as he is tiny bolts, he, he finally gets his break, his like two minute bathroom break or whatever. And so he punches out and of course he goes into the bathroom and the moment he lights a cigarette, there's this giant TV in there.

And, uh, they demand that he goes back to work because why should he be lazy enough to smoke a cigarette? And so he goes back to work. And while he's working, introduce the like automatic feeding machine. Uh, how would you even describe this machine? .

Andrew Harp: It's just like these guys like come in with this like weird looking machine and it's just like, yeah, you hook 'em up to a worker and they can eat and like drink or whatever while they work or whatever, so they don't have to like stop working.

Austin Lugo: You don't have to waste time with a lunch break anymore. .

Andrew Harp: Yeah. And so they, of course they tested on on Charlie Chaplin and that's pretty funny. It goes wild and it like, I like, like the corn, like apparatus just like keeps like smacking into chaplain's face. I laughed like how like long that kept on, like hitting him that made me laugh and the whole thing that they put together was really great.

Austin Lugo: It looks great. It's funny. and I mean, they had to build the machine. So it's also impressive that they just built this just strangely made machine in which like Charlie Chaplin, which seems like a lot of the, uh, Stunts, I guess you could say. They're not stunts in the same way, say like in a, in a Buster Keaton film, but they're still quite a bit of, there's pretty physical, yeah.

There, there's a lot of physical stuff that, that seems quite dangerous and I feel like being strapped into this machine because it is like, I mean, I'm sure they probably just use like a series of pulleys or, or something of that sort. Like it's probably not electric, but even so it still feels. Dangerous somehow.

I don't know. The whole thing feels a little bit, a bit dangerous. I agree

Andrew Harp: with you. I think even when he goes in like the gears, that very famous scene where he goes in the gears, I thought that looked kind of scary cuz it is actually, it's definitely him actually like in like kind of like, you know, cutout set.

But I don't know, I don't think I would be able to like do that. You know, like I think Charlie Chap is probably the right size and flexible enough to do something like that. You know ?

Austin Lugo: Yeah. Charlie Chaplin just, he doesn't give a shit. He does whatever. To get the shot, Andrew, you gotta do whatever it takes to get the shot, I suppose so, yeah.

But eventually he gets fired from the factory because, I mean, he basically just has a mental breakdown. Like, he just goes, he

Andrew Harp: goes fucking nuts. He goes crazy. He like, he just, he destroys the factory , which I, I liked, I liked that. He's just like, I'm gonna destroy everything. , like, I'm so pissed off and upset.

I'm gonna just, I'm gonna blow up the whole factory. So good on him.

Austin Lugo: He's a true socialist. What are they called? Those, those, uh, people in the 1920s, but also in like early industrial revolutions, like 1880s or even before that. They're about Luddites. Yeah, Luddites. He's like, he's like a modern Luddite . Yeah.

I fuck

Andrew Harp: with Leadism. I think that's what it's called. Leadism. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. .

Andrew Harp: He's going nuts. And, you know, of course the movie's got a lot of stuff like that. A lot of, you know, uh, commentary about industrialism and war and labor and stuff like that. There's definitely a lot in there to, uh, pick apart, I guess.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. I think what's intriguing and perhaps a little bit terrifying about the film is the only place that Charlie Chap's character is truly ever able to find any solace is in prison. The only place where he seems to be at peace with the world, or just happy in general is when he is. Completely taken out of the workforce because whenever he gets any sort of job, like it just ends up pretty terribly.

So like the only way to find any sort of happiness in modern times is to basically just be taken out of it, like just to be. Completely isolated from the modern, uh, capitalistic

Andrew Harp: workforce. Yeah. He gets like arrested after getting fired, and then he like starts to really like being in jail because they just, he, he, he just chills.

He just hangs out. I don't think I would want to be in a modern prison though. I think Charlie Chaplin, if he was in modern prison, he would be like, no, I

Austin Lugo: don't wanna be here. Yeah. Prison in the 1930s looked pretty. It looked like a pretty sweet kick in the

Andrew Harp: movie world of 1930s. Uh, yeah, being in jail, being in presence looked really great.

Um, just chilling out, doing nothing, you know. That's awesome. And, uh, he like stops a jail break, which is Charlie Travel movies. They have a lot of hitting in them. They have a lot of fighting, I've noticed.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. I guess never, never thought about the amount of like physical. Fights in them, but it's a great fight scene cuz uh, of course, like all the scenes, Charlie Chaplin doesn't really know what he is doing.

He's kind of just fumbling his way and, and he's just slamming doors on people and, and running around and he has no idea what he is doing. But it's, I love that whole gag of. The prison scene in which he's kind of just following orders in the sense that like he just marches from one place to the other.

And of course, right when everyone marches into the cell instead of turning right, he turns left and just like wraps around the tree a couple of times.

Andrew Harp: I, I just really like watching a movie. You know, it's like I, I'm taking my time with these chaplain movies because, They really have a lot of like stuff going on in every one of them.

You know, you really gotta pay attention to them. It's not really a chapel movie and you know, also a Keaton movie. You know, it's really not the time to be like looking at your phone. It's really not the time to be like doing anything else. You really gotta like just. Chill and like watch it. And

Austin Lugo: that's one of the things that I really love about Silent era films and even films.

You know, going up to the 1940s, I think, you know, honestly the longest film you're gonna watch is hour and 40, hour and 45 minutes. And within the hour and 45 minutes, it honestly feels like more is accomplished and done then say, you know, so many three hour films like they're just, as you said, jam packed with scene after scene after scene.

And especially with silent films because they. You know, lean on these like long scenes in which like people just, you know, give these giant speeches and that sort of thing. Like they're entirely

Andrew Harp: Yeah, it's more like about the action than about the dialogue. It's not something you can listen to because there's nothing to listen to.

For the most part. It's definitely a visual film

Austin Lugo: and Charlie Chaplin was kind of like one of the people who very early on, pushed. Having as few tile cards as possible because there are plenty of silent films that have a lot of talking quote unquote in them. And those are probably my least favorite type of silent films because they're just kind of a hassle to get through because there's just a whole lot of reading.

Like it's a lot of just people saying Around talking card, people saying Around Talking card. I would, Charlene suggests not watching those types of films, but none of you know the Big Buster Caton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold. They don't really do that, but I have seen enough silent films to have fumbled upon a couple.

There's not a ton, at least that still exists. I'm sure. Like at the time it was a lot more popular. , but they can be quite a slog to get through because it's just pretty boring. I mean, , you're just re, you're basically just reading title cards.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. That's cool. Not even subtitles. There's one thing to read subtitles, but to read endless title cards, it's just like, like, I don't know what to say.

Austin Lugo: Charlie Chaplin refuses. He's a man. A few words and many actions. It's true.

Andrew Harp: He is able to get outta jail for stopping the prison break, which he's upset about, which is very funny that he's upset about that because he wants to chill in the jail. But the guy's like, you're free to go. You can get a job. And he is like, oh, okay.

And the sheriff gives him a letter and. He gets like a shipbuilder job, which, I mean that job lasts like 10. We're talking about how like how bad like Charlie Chaplin is at his jobs or whatever. He literally has a job for 10 seconds.

Austin Lugo: Literally the first task this van has given.

Andrew Harp: Yeah, he's given his first task and he destroys like a boat that they're repairing, which is a great gag.

Looks great. Like an entire bowl. Yeah. The boat washes into the sea and it literally, I just love it. There's no follow through. It's just, that happens and then it just cuts to the next sea . And then I think around this time too, you, you're introduced to Ellen. Who's the heroin? How old is she supposed to be in the movie?

I think she's supposed to be under 18. Is

Austin Lugo: she? Why do you say, oh, because she lives with her dad.

Andrew Harp: She lives with her dad and also just because like the juvenile police are like following her. Yeah, that's

Austin Lugo: a good point. How old is Charlie Chaplin supposed to be.

Andrew Harp: I don't know. I mean, he's pretty old by the time, I mean, he's pretty old by the time this movie comes out, right?

He's like in his forties or

Austin Lugo: fifties. Yeah, I think he's in his forties by the time this movie comes out.

Andrew Harp: Paulette Godard, who plays Ellen. She's, uh, 26 in 1936, but I don't know, they, they make it seem like she's like a kid, like she's under 18, even though she does not look like she's 18. No. . Or like under 18, she looks like she is in her late twenties, early thirties.

Yeah. , she looks like an adult. So I think most people would be like, oh yeah, but for some reason, like, yeah, she's being ch chased by like juvenile police. Like, why is it so bad that she walks away from the police that one time? Why do they need her so

Austin Lugo: bad, like after her dad die? .

Andrew Harp: Why can't she just walk away

Austin Lugo: if she's an adult?

Because Is she the guardian for the other kids? No,

Andrew Harp: the kids. The other kids are taken away, remember?

Austin Lugo: Yeah. I

Andrew Harp: don't know. I think she's supposed to be under 18, which that

Austin Lugo: complicates things. ? Yeah. That's

Andrew Harp: kinda weird. I just wouldn't think about it. Yeah, don't think about it at all. She doesn't look that young at all.

She does not look that young. Like it's completely like your brain. You're watching it and your brain is completely thinking like, yeah, this is like a 20 something year old person. Yeah. . Like, I don't think your brain would, yeah, it, it doesn't make any sense. But anyway, yeah, her dad dies. He gets shot like in a protest, I think like a labor protest cuz it can't get a job.

And she has two little sisters and they get, like I said, we talked about they get taken by the police and then she runs away. and then she's like a fugitive, I guess. And, uh, they eventually, uh, meat through, uh, yeah, she steals the loaf of

Austin Lugo: bread and the police go to arrest her. And Charlie Chaplin decides that he stole the loaf of bread because he just wants to go back.

This poor man just wants to go back to jail. That's, that's part of the movie. So funny. , it's so good. And so like the next like 20 minutes is just a series of gags in which Charlie Chaplin just tries to get arrested. Like just a series that's. Events. .

Andrew Harp: Yeah. The loaf of breath thing, it doesn't work at all.

Austin Lugo: And everyone just refuses to arrest this man. Like he just . I love it. He has like that giant meal where he just eats like a, a shit ton of food. It's so funny. He refuses to pay for it. He gets himself a cigar. He is. He, yeah. He goes

Andrew Harp: and eats at the restaurant. He eats a bunch of stuff and then he like calls the cop over.

and he's like, I can't pay for it, . And he is like, okay, well, and he, and then you arrest him and then they're like a Yeah, they're like a newspaper stand and he like lights up a cigar there or whatever, just to like, I don't know, rub it in. And uh, yeah, they're like in a paddy wagon together. And they still don't end up in jail because I believe it gets into an accident.

Right. Well,

Austin Lugo: what happens is, The woman fights with the guard and then they like, they're pushed out. But then I think, yeah, I think the patty wagon like crashes or falls over or whatever. But suffice it to say that, uh, unfortunately poor Charlie Chaplin is still a free man, and that's where we hear probably the most famous song from a Charlie Chaplin film.

Smile. I think it's probably the mo, his most famous song. I can't think of another one that I would know. But as they're playing that song, uh, you get the

Andrew Harp: domestic Yeah, they're just chilling. Yeah. They do that little thing where like, they're like, wow, what if we had a house and they imagine themselves being there, like in the house and chilling and eating or whatever.

I don't think she has any shoes at this point either. You know, she's just wearing her black dress. She has no shoes. Kind of weird. If she's supposed to be under 18, wouldn't think about it. , she's like young at. . Yeah. So they have their little thing and then, uh, I think what they go to like a, uh, a department store right after that, which I like.

I like the department store. It's

Austin Lugo: great. It's a great looking department store. It's a great set. And of course we get the, uh, very famous, as you were talking about earlier, the roller skating scene. That seems

Andrew Harp: crazy.

Austin Lugo: I was rewatching it this morning and I'm trying to figure out that scene where he's like roller skating next to the ledge.

Andrew Harp: No, I bet, I bet it isn't alleged at all. It's probably just an illusion. I, it's still amazing that he is able to roller skate while Blind Four Load, so, well, he's clearly done it a lot for some reason. Just really

Austin Lugo: good at it. That must have been just like a much more popular thing. We

Andrew Harp: watched a movie, a movie, not as good, but still there's a lot, like a lot of roller skating.

Uh, obviously Charlie Chaplin is better roller skater than the couple. And, uh, the other

Austin Lugo: movie that we watch, ginger, Roger. And Fred Astair. , yeah, he's great. But, uh,

Andrew Harp: Charlie Chaplin's crazy. He's just able to skate for several minutes blindfolded. He's

Austin Lugo: insane moves. He's spin around. He's jumping. He's a guy.

It's,

Andrew Harp: yeah, and he, and he's there because he got a job as a night watchman, and so they decided to take advantage of it. So they eat all the food and they sleep in the beds there, and they

Austin Lugo: just, Again, bad at, bad at his job.

Andrew Harp: He's really bad at his job. Like he's basically stealing in this instance. And like we talked about though, like I really like how the set looks, you know, it's fun.

They're chilling there at night, stealing shit, and just kind of like, that's fun. Yeah,

Austin Lugo: absolutely. And it is a truly great juxtaposition between, of course, the 1930s Great depression juxtaposed to these very elaborate and fancy and kind of rich people department stores, right? There's like all this. No one's living in, you know, there's all of this stuff, right?

They're wearing these fancy coats and all these like

Andrew Harp: bets, you know, at 1% or whatever. You have this rising inequality. Charlie

Austin Lugo: Chap's a true socialist. . Yeah, , sure. But Charlie Chaplin, you know, he, he's doing the best he can. He's really skating around, and of course, immediately burglarize. Within like the first, it's so funny, first

Andrew Harp: night

I love that scene where they're like telling him to freeze and he keeps living on his roller skates. That is so fucking funny. , they're like telling him to stop and he's like, he can't, it's so good.

Austin Lugo: He's like rolling down this escalator, which seems again just like an extremely dangerous stunt to be roller skating down.

An

Andrew Harp: escalator, but he has so much control, you know, so I think he's fine. It's

Austin Lugo: insane. And so they're shooting at him and of course they end up shooting a barrel of rum.

Andrew Harp: This is such a classic like silent film type thing, right? Where the character like gets drunk somehow, either accidentally or on purpose.

And so then they're drunk and then they do like, you know, wacky stuff with their body and stuff. Very classic silent film stuff.

Austin Lugo: But of course to, uh, Charlie Chaplin's, great luck, the. Man who's burglarizing him just happens to be the same man that he worked with at the factory. So they're like best buds.

Instead of murdering him, I guess they all have some champagne and eat some food.

Andrew Harp: And you know, it's like the next morning Ellen gets away and then Charlie Chaplin is like found like just obviously, you know, just super drunk under a violet of. Grit gag. Yeah, he's, he. It is so funny. And yeah, he gets fired once again.

Charlie failed that job. This is like the third or four job he is had in the movie and he failed once again. But yeah, the whole department store set piece, it's really good. Maybe not as good as like the factory, but it's really good.

Austin Lugo: And then from this set piece, we are introduced immediately to our next set piece, which is this old, decrepit house where everything has to be like in its very specific.

There's

Andrew Harp: a whole great Buster Keaton one week, right, where it's like, there it is, just fucking with a fucked up house. And uh, it is the same thing here basically.

Austin Lugo: And yeah, you got the roof caving in and every time Charlie Chaplin sits anywhere, like the floor just caves in, it's cute. They clearly build it A very wonderful set.

And I imagine just a very hard set to build correctly cuz you have to like, right, you kinda have to be like in the exact right spot. Like I'm thinking of like when he sits in the chair and it like goes down. Right. You have to be like on those exact

Andrew Harp: boards. That would hurt too. Can you imagine? Like sitting in a chair and then honestly it just like full, like hits the ground.

That would like ruin my day if that happened to me. . Because you would scare you and it would hurt and it would just like, I don't

Austin Lugo: know. It's incredible. And then they're also eating just like the world. Like Scooby Doo style sandwiches.

Andrew Harp: Yeah, but they, you know, they live in the shack and you know, they're hanging out,

Austin Lugo: chilling in it.

They're being happy. They're living their life. They're living the their best. And of course Charlie Chaplin, uh, reads the newspaper, you know, again, Ken Miller classic move right to Eaton, and he is sitting at the table reading a newspaper , and he finds that the factory has reopened because he destroyed it earlier.

Because he destroyed it. Yeah. So I guess in his mind the best course of action is to go back to the factory and, and just work again, which I love that he just gets the job

Andrew Harp: again because Yeah. I think now he has a reason to get a job because he wants to support. He's in love. He gets back to the factory.

He pushes through everybody. He's the most unqualified person in the crowd. A lot. A lot of extras in this movie too, by the way. There's a lot of scenes where there's a lot of crowds I've noticed. Just like tons of people. And yeah, he like pushes through a group to get to the front. And yeah, he gets a job and you get another kind of semi factory set piece where he's like an assistant to a mechanic

Austin Lugo: and like the other set piece at the factory, it's just a series of gears.

But instead of Charlie Chaplin getting stuck this time, he get. Boss, the mechanic like stuck in this extremely elaborate set of gears, . So like the front's like a, a facade. And then I guess they just kind of like push the guy into like a hole. Like between the facade,

Andrew Harp: they look good, they look good in black and white, especially.

They look great, but he completely fucks everything up. And poor Charlie Chaplin, they s smush everything. He s smushes his stuff. That's very cartoony. Even for like a silent Chaplain Keaton film. I mean, that's something that you would see like in a, like at a, like in a Looney Tunes cartoon where something gets smooshed by something and it's completely flat.

Austin Lugo: It's wonderful. The mechanic gets stuck within the gears. And I love the scene where, uh, Charlie Chaplin tries to feed him. He like tries to feed him his lunch. He gives him like a cup of coffee, he gives him a sandwich, a piece of cake. And for some reason this man has packed an entire chicken, like just like a whole fucking rotisserie chicken.

Why do eat it?

Andrew Harp: It's like a small chicken. I think when people think of rotisserie chicken, they think of like the ones you would get at like Costco or Walmart that are, you know, filled with steroids or gigantic . Yeah, this is just like a normal sized one.

Austin Lugo: That's still a lot of food though. I

Andrew Harp: mean that's, I guess, yeah,

Austin Lugo: you'd eat it later.

I guess cuz have a, it is a later snack, but unfortunately, uh, , Charlie Chapin does not get to keep this job like as many other jobs really.

Andrew Harp: Again, he's incompetent. He's He's just bad. Completely incompetent . Yeah. I don't even think they fire him because then they go on strike, right? Yes. Oh, and he also gets arrested again.

Austin Lugo: Poor Charlie Chaplin. But he doesn't go to jail cuz he never gets to go to jail. Cause he just, no, he does go to jail.

Andrew Harp: He's there

Austin Lugo: for a couple weeks. Yeah. They're just like, no real scenes in the jail. You never see 'em in. Yeah, he just like goes and comes back

Andrew Harp: because like then Ellen gets a job while he's in jail.

She gets a job as a dancer and so

Austin Lugo: he gets a job as like a waiter I guess at the, a singer and waiter. Singer and waiter . I love to, once

Andrew Harp: again, another great, another, another silent film trope is, uh, restaurants or waiters and stuff like that. I think literally like. Chaplain has a movie or like a short film where he's like at a restaurant or something like that.

Um, I, maybe even Keaton does, maybe I'm getting the confused, you know, just like the, it's indoor thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's a Keaton Film Indoor thing. Yeah. Is like very, like, I, I feel like I've seen that before where it's like chaplain goes in the outdoor and, you know, You know, hits somebody who's like carrying a big trade and it gets all over.

Like, I think I've seen that before, but it's still done really well here. Um, it's just, you know, classic restaurant stuff, you know, chaplain's like a bad waiter, you know, the, there's a guy who's complaining cuz he hasn't gotten his food yet in like an hour. Um, and so he's like, chaplain's like running around and running into people and, you know, once again, you know, just like a good like setting to have like silent film gags and, yeah.

Austin Lugo: Something that I didn't think about until, uh, this rewatch was the similarities between this film and playtime, because they both have a very similar opening in like the kind of like, uh, modern industrialist, kind of like futuristic sort of thing going on. And then they also both have a, a long restaurant scene where there's kind of like very similar gags.

Andrew Harp: That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Mon, yeah. And the restaurant, the restaurant still feel, feels a little old to me, old timey, you know. But yeah, it's, uh, you know, like we said, like the, the restaurant is just a good, because peop because, you know, bad things happen in restaurants all the time, you know what I mean? Like, fuck, like, uh, like, you know, like, like shit happens at restaurants all the time.

So, you know, I think it makes sense to kind of have a. B have a, of course you gotta have the restaurant job, right? And the, and the movie where he has a bunch of different jobs and, you know, restaurant jobs, whether it be, you know, in fast food or in uh, uh, you know, just like at a regular restaurant. Um, you know, these jobs probably have multiplied since then, you know, uh, by a hundred.

Compared to today, which there's so many and they're so shitty, you know? Uh, so that's probably a good prediction. Maybe not a prediction, but just something, you know, I've noticed.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. The restaurant industry hasn't exactly been, uh, The greatest industry to work in , and I guess even back in the back in the 1930s, it still sucks.

So it's good to know that some things don't change.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. Some things change, but some things don't change.

Austin Lugo: But of course, this is, uh, how we end our film. No, he is gotta sing a

Andrew Harp: song. He sings a song. Yes. , which I, I did not expect that. I didn't expect that to happen. I didn't realize, I, I read and read that this is his last film as the Tramp character, which kinda made sense to me.

Yeah. Um, when watching the movie, and it's also the first movie where I think you hear his voice is what I read as well. So he, like, he writes like the lyrics on his, uh, the cuffs, right. And he goes out there, and of course he has to, he loses the cuffs obviously. Like he doesn't have the lyrics now, but, so instead he just kind of, Sings gibberish and pantomimes, and he kills it.

Everyone goes crazy. They love it. They love his gibberish. It's such an epic. Uh, it's such an epic performance. He crushes it

Austin Lugo: just he kills it.

Andrew Harp: He doesn't even say any words and he doesn't even have to say words and he

Austin Lugo: kills it. That's, that's just how great he is. Have you seen any of Charlie chaplain's later work?

Like any of the stuff where he talks?

Andrew Harp: No, I haven't seen like the great, no, I mean like outside of like a bunch of short films that I've seen by his, this is, and City Lights, which I saw when I was a kid. I mean, yeah, like I haven't seen really any other chaplain features besides this one. And.

Austin Lugo: That's baffling it.

Andrew Harp: I am truly, it's not that ba it's, it's really like how many other people in the, like I don't understand what's wrong with that. Like, I'm just taking my time with them.

Austin Lugo: I know. I mean, that's great. I love it. They're lovely. I guess it, they are lovely.

Andrew Harp: It's just, I've seen way more, at this point, I've seen way more Keaton works by Keaton than Chaplin at this point.

Um, but yeah, chapel Chapels signed on the list, you know, chaps signed on the list. Like I said, I was gonna watch City Lights this week, but I just didn't get to it. I was probably gonna watch others too, but I just, you know, I just didn't get to it. Um, like I said, it, it deserves my undivided attention.

Austin Lugo: That's true. His films do require a bit of dedication, but they are short. I mean, you know, 90 minutes top, even like his top piece. I think the great dictators. Not more than 90 minutes. Maybe it's closer to two hours. To two hours. But they're great. I mean, I, I understand why his Takis weren't as popular as his silent films.

Andrew Harp: There's other shit going on at the time

Austin Lugo: because there's other shit going on. And are his like talking films like when they come out, are they like the best talkie films

Andrew Harp: of the era? Isn't there one, isn't there one in the fifties that he makes where he goes to New York and he is like old as fuck, uh, lime.

No, not that one. Another one, uh, it's like Verde. No, it's like a, it's like a Charlie Chap film in the fifties where he's old and he goes to New York. It's like it has New York in the title.

Austin Lugo: I'm gonna look this up. I need to know the answer to this. Uh, let's see. Cas crew, Charlie Chaplin.

Andrew Harp: It's uh, a king

Austin Lugo: in New York.

Oh yes. And I've seen this one. Yeah, that's one of, that's pretty late in his career. How many films did he have? Af not many because 1957, I mean, he's an old man by this point. I remember it. I don't really remember much of anything about this film, to

Andrew Harp: be honest. Yeah, ,

Austin Lugo: I'm sure it's fine, but. Not very memorable.

I would say his most memorable film of the talking era is probably Limelight, and I think that's just because what works about Limelight is it's a film about a, uh, Aging movie star. So it's very autobiographical in that sense. And Buster Keaton gives a great performance in that film too. Uh, also very depressing performance.

It's not a happy film. City Light or not City Lights. Limelight. Yes. Thank you. is a pretty in the dumps film, but I think it's. Probably his strongest film in the talking era because like Harold Lo, Buster Keaton, I mean, he really is at his best when he is doing his silent A, you know, in this kind of modern times sort of stuff where he's just fumbling from one place to another.

And you know, the. Just living in the, in the physical aspects. They just, they're just of a different era, I guess. I mean, are there really any famous film movie stars directors that kind of made the jump, like successfully made the jump between silent and talkies? I can't think of any, cuz like all the great silent film directors didn't really direct much once like sound came along.

And that's same with like most of the movie stars it, which is, it's a very strange like, In film history, cuz there's not really another moment where that happens, right? The world of filmmaking kind of has this interesting cyclical pattern to it in which. You know, when filmmaking first started, like in the early 1910s and twenties, it was really accessible.

Like it was very cheap to get a camera and some film and since there was no sound or anything, like pretty much anyone could make it. I mean even, you

Andrew Harp: know, Buster Keaton, they say in Singing in the Rain as they one of my favorite movies, like , like he

Austin Lugo: was just, he didn't have a whole lot of money. He just kind of had a friend and a camera and they just kinda like made shit and was very accessible, very.

but by the 1930s, sound came along, which at the time was super expensive. And then you have the studio system. I mean, I'm glad that we're of an era currently where filmmaking is for the first time and say

Andrew Harp: like even, even the people that have a lot of resources, that they just, it seems like they continually make bad movies as.

Austin Lugo: So I think one of the things, there's a bit of hindsight bias, right? When we look at films from the past, because obviously there's always been bad films since the beginning of films, but most of those just simply don't survive, right? They're impossible to find, like out of every a hundred films, like what one out of every a hundred films probably survives of the.

Hundred years because really until the 1960s with people like John Lu Goard and French Watcher foe, who really pushed the idea of art being, you know, cinema or an art form, no one kept track of like, these reels like it. I mean, there's, you know, even some of the famous, uh, Buster Keaton films are almost impossible to find because like no one gave a shit.

They thought you just show 'em, and then no one took care of these reels. So they were just sort of lost to history. So anything you do see from these, Ray are the best of the best. So I think that's also part of it is just like we have so much access to every film. Whereas, you know, the further we go back, the less math films we can see.

Right. How many films outside of, you know, the most famous actors, directors can you see of the 1920s or even the thirties? So

Andrew Harp: at least we have all of chaplain's movies. Probably, I'm guess. I, I'm assuming he's famous enough that like there's nothing lost. Probably just unmade. Um, you know, this movie has a, you know, to kind of get to finish out water tides, I guess, you know, he, he sings, but then the police arrive to arrest Ellen.

They gotta run away again. And then you get the iconic ending where like chaplain like tells her to smile or whatever. Even though they're both like upset and then they walk in the middle of the street with kind of like their silhouettes. You know, once again, you know, feel free to ignore or not ignore the age, the, I guess age difference between them.

I don't know, maybe chaplain is supposed to be younger than he is, who knows? Unclear. But it is a sweet, it's a sweet scene. It's a sweet scene. It's a sweet moment. , um, where they kind of just like walk down the road and, uh, to nothing kind of, I, I guess it's kind of bittersweet because they, they've failed multiple times and now they're kind of like, I don't know, going out west, I guess kind of like a, you know, kind of a return away from modern life and maybe like a return to, I don't know, uh, more, um, uh, difficult, but, uh, You know, modernized world, I guess.

Um, I don't know. That's at least how I see that.

Austin Lugo: I mean, you can only hope so much for Charlie Chaplin since he is incapable. Uh,

Andrew Harp: that's right.

Austin Lugo: existing in the mar, he's a man at a time.

Andrew Harp: He do begin in, uh, trouble a lot. He do, he do. He he does mess up a lot, you know. He is. He is. He is. He's a Charlie Chaplet character.

Austin Lugo: I don't know how best to interpret this ending if, you know, we're supposed to be sort of happy in the sense that, you know, they have each other and they have love and you know that should be enough and that's all you need. But then at the same time, they're completely incapable of living in a. Modern society in which everyone is forced into this big brothers style labor, and there's not really anything you can do about it.

And no matter, you know what you do, no matter how hard you try, you're just going to end up in the exact same place. Still good though. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: Once again, you know, it has its sweet and sad elements to it, but iconic looking, ending, iconic final shot, you know, iconic fucking.

Austin Lugo: While Andrew, uh, final thoughts on modern times.

You know, it's kind of fun

Andrew Harp: to learn that it's like the, uh, it's chaplain's last like kind of movie in this role. You know, it kind of feels like kind of him taking everything that he's done and learned from like, maybe previous efforts and kind of like making them better or like tweaking them and really kind of like, Just kind of going all out for it and tons of different set pieces where he is being very physical.

He is doing a lot of running around. Um, I didn't even mention the person that plays Paula Godard, who plays Ellen. She's really good too. You know, she does a lot of running around. She's very physical in the movie for the most part. Um, she doesn't really like sit around, you know? Like we talked about, you know, when Charlie has to use, when chaplain has to use sound, you know, he, he does a really good job with it.

Um, and there's plenty of, like, sometimes the commentary can be a little bit like overbearing or a little on the nose, but I think for the most part it's pretty, uh, smart and uh, fun to watch. And, you know, it's just, you know, a movie that, you know, in retrospect has like interesting stuff in it that I think, of course, you know, makes a lot of sense.

Um, yeah, you know, once again, you know, it, it just, it has a, it's just a packed movie with tons of great visuals, good sets. You know, it, it does make me laugh, you know? I really do think that like, you know, um, a lot, you know, I think if, if you're 13, would this make you laugh? I don't know. You know, like if you're 13 right here, right now, if you watch this, I don't know if you would find it funny, but I don't know, like I think it's still a funny movie.

I think it's still good. I think it's still really, uh, uh, uh, I think there's still lots of like jokes and stuff that work and, and, and there's also a lot of stuff that make me kind of like. Go like, oh wow. You know, kind of that I find amazing, maybe not as funny, but amazing, but you know, it's, there's really not much to sales about it.

I mean, I think I'm gonna stick with, um, I think I'm bordering an eight and a nine, but I think I'll stick with a nine.

Austin Lugo: Yeah, I mean, When it comes to Charlie Chaplin, he truly is one of the greats . I don't think anyone's made much a mistake on that. I'm not sure if we said anything new about modern times that hasn't been said a million times over.

But as far as chaplain films goes, I find this film to be a little underwhelming relative to say some of his earlier work. I mean, I understand why people love this film and it is an incredible film, and the comedic aspects I do think are eternal. And there's just some, you know, beautiful physical work in this.

But for me, it feels like some of the gags. Don't live up to some of the standards that he had earlier, especially in sort of his two-wheelers. And I think part of that is just the fact that, you know, by this point Charlie Chaplin is the Charlie Chaplin. I mean, he's one of the most well known, uh, actors and directors of his time.

So, you know, he's extremely wealthy, extremely popular, and perhaps there's a bit of pressure to create certain types of films. And he certainly succeeds in this. For me, I think I'd rather take the kid or city lights over modern times. Still a wonderful film. Great sound design, great music. Charlie Chaplin does a great job.

Very physical, very funny. So I'm gonna give this a nine outta 10 because I think it's great, but with the asterisk that there are better Charlie Chaplin film. All right y'all. Thank you for listening. You can find everything I do at Austin Lugo one 12.

Andrew Harp: Yeah, I'm on Twitter at ad harp 24. I'm also on Letterboxed at Retro Andrew, r t r zero

Austin Lugo: Andrew, and you can find this podcast wherever you hear podcast.

You can also find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at Fear 42 or with nothing to say. And thank you all for listening. Thanks again.