Modern Times

Modern Times is a 1936 film by Charlie Chaplin in which his Little Tramp character struggles to survive in an industrialized world. In one memorable and often parodied sequence, Chaplin's character is pulled into the gears of a machine and sent through it looking to tighten a bolt.

In another famous scene the Tramp sees a (presumably red) warning flag fall off the back of a van, picks up the flag and runs after it, waving the flag to try and attract the driver's attention. He does not realise that behind him a group of protest marchers has come around a corner; the police arrest him as their leader, believing the flag to be a communist banner.

The scenes in the factory have a futuristic look and may have been influenced by Fritz Lang's Metropolis, but the rest of the film has a contemporary setting.

Modern Times was one of the last silent films made, although it did include sound effects, music, singers, and voices coming from radios and loudspeakers. An instrumental version of the song "Smile" forms part of Chaplin's music score.

The movie also stars Paulette Goddard[?], Henry Bergman[?], Stanley Sandford[?] and Chester Conklin[?]. It was written and directed by Chaplin.

The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.