The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
Chaplin Nov
Ready With
Picture
In Modern Times Comedian
Again MoCkS Use
of Film Sound.

Times Special
HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 21.-There
was never any mystery about Pro-
duction No. 5.
1t is high time the illusion was
stripped away from this. Charlie
Chaplin's latest picture, now emery
ing from its anonymity as Modern
Times"
For the simplest of all reasons
he was a long time producing it
and did not want his ideas stolen
in the meantime-the actual shoot
ing was enshrouded in secrecy. No
one off the lot has seen the picture
in its entirety.
Out of courtesy a few foreign film
celebrities were permitted to view
certain sequences during produc-
ton. Their reports have been con-
flicting, obscure and to some ex-
tent misleading.
This quite possibly through no
fault of their own. Mr.. Chaplin
works with a complete story, but
without scenario, in the convention
al sense of the word. His idea&
build as he goes along. They also
change.
Quite frequently the ending is
secret even to him until the main
body of the picture begins to shape
up. Mr.. Chaplin is capable of max
ing the most drastic alterations
after the film has been completed
almost to the extent of trans
forming it into a different picture.
Ending Changed
"The Gold Rush" was to have
ended tragically. A happy after
thought led to its final pleasing
conclusion. City Lights was con-
structed around one concrete idea
the rich man who remembered his
friend and savior when drunk and
forgot him when sober.
During the production of Mod
ern Times" the only things that
could have been reported about it
with certainty, even by Mr.. Chap
Inns associates, was ID that it
would be funny and CD that Mr..
Chaplin would not speak.
In consequence, there were null
titudinous rumorS. There were at
tempts to characterize Charles
impish satire in terms of a heavy
social document, hints of a political
philosophy, long winded and long
Worded analyses of his social mes
sage.
In the light of past performances,
this is unfair to Charles creation
the wistful, pathetic, prankish
Charlie, as arrant an individual as
ever eXiSted-Sousseu's natural man
laundering in the incomprehensible
nazes of convention, the battling
rules of society; sometimes patheti-
cally striving to fight his way
through, more often vainly seeking
to conform to fit his erratic feet
into the proper path.
Theme of Picture
1t is this man, beset by monsters
of efficiency, lost in a mechaniStic
jungle, that affords the theme of
Mr.. Chaplin's Modern Times"
With more direct symbolism than
in any of the other pictures the
background is an industrial plant,
with Charles diminutive figure
threading its way through monster
cogwheels and nightmare-ish levers,
switches, belts and pulleyS, vainly
trying to understand his function
among these monsters, impishly
pulling their figurative tails or flee
ing for dear life from their menace.
Because his reactions are direct.
instructive, natural, his fellow
workers look upon him as lunatic,
while the forces of society, the boss,
the law, brush him aside impa-
tiently because, insect that he is,
he may yet clog the wheels.
Settings Elaborate
The settings are more elaborate
than in other Chaplin pictures.
They are not constructivist; they
are rather neo-impreSsionist. The
musical accompaniment was ar
ranged by Mr.. Chaplin himself, as
were the sound effects, an elabora-
ton of the hooking use of sound
in City Lights"
For the rest, the elusive quality
of Mr.. Chaplin's humor does not
lend itself readily to description.