MODERN TIMES (1936)                                                                                                                             Chaplin's last 'silent' film, filled with sound effects, was made when everyone else was making talkies. Charlie turns against modern society, the machine age and progress. Firstly we see him frantically trying to keep up with a production line, tightening bolts. He is selected for an experiment with an automatic feeding machine, but various mishaps leads his boss to believe he has gone mad, and Charlie is sent to a mental hospital... When he gets out, he is mistaken for a Communist while waving a red flag, sent to jail, foils a jailbreak, and is let out again. This was, in effect, the swansong of the Tramp in what is basically a 'silent' film which makes pointed use of synchronised speech at carefully selected moments. In a series of set-pieces, in turn cynical and ironic, sentimental and nostalgic, Charlie unsuccessfully assumes a variety of occupations from assembly line worker to singing waiter. In between times he becomes one of the unemployed, a willing prisoner and the companion of a working class girl. The film begins as social satire but Chaplin's factory is too stylised to give the humour much bite. Prod, dir, scr, ed, mus: CHARLES CHAPLIN, Phot: Rollie Totheroh, Ira Morgan. Cast: CHARLIE CHAPLIN, PAULETTE GODARD, CHESTER CONKLIN. 87 mins. NFVLS.