Les Jones

A&E > Movie: "Modern Times" (1936)

I've never watched a silent movie, but I caught Modern Times on Turner Classic Movies and watched it based on the rating.

What a funny movie. Chaplin's facial expressions and body movements make every scene he's in. Modern Times is a commentary on the industrial age. He use a factory's machinery to make fun of the inhumanity of the assembly line mentality that made the industrial age possible.

This was Chaplin's last silent movie and it came late in the game. (Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were released three years later.) He makes a few concessions in the talkie direction, with bits of dialog, sound effects, and a voice broadcast over an intercom interwoven with the soundtrack. Otherwise it's all mouthed dialog and cue cards. (What do they call the cards with words inserted into a silent movie?)

Chaplin's next movie, The Great Dictator, was a talkie and is considered his best work. I'm going to be on the watch for it on American Movie Classics and TCM.

P.S. What are some other good silent movies?