Charile Chaplin's Modern Times
Company: Steel Corp.
President has a secretary. Seems indifferent. Relaxed.
Commands workers from a monitor.
Chaplin misses some bolts and causes trouble. Very fast work, repetitive.
Slightest distraction causes trouble: a fly. His colleague gets blamed for his mistake.
President commands once again, demands "more steam".
Chaplin leaves his work to someone else but keeps doing the automatic movements as if he's a robot.
President interrupts his break very soon.
But upon his return there is not much to do. His colleague is doing everything until the work is left back to him.
The president is presented with a marvelous object. A message is played from a gramophone. The object is an automatic feeder of the workers.
The features are presented at great length. The object asks to be demonstrated with one of the workers.
Chaplin once again is much too used to doing his robotic movements that he keeps doing them to the point of using his tools to fasten the buttons of the skirt of a woman bending over.
He then spills his colleagues food when attempting to give it to him. At lunch time Chaplin is chosen to be the subject of the demonstration of the automatic feeder.
The feeder has a linear procedure that doesn't seem to give Chaplin the freedom that he wants: it doesn't give him enough time to eat much of the food.
Upon feeding him a corndog, it breaks and starts spinning to fast and Chaplin clearly does not want to eat anymore.
When restarting the machine, it attempts to feed him soup, but breaks and pours the soup all over his chest.
It then feeds him the wrong things (bolts) and also gives him a huge cake that is also spilled all over his chest.
The commander once again demands faster production through the monitor, and Chaplin once again is working his hardest.
Chaplin is overwhelmed by his work and falls onto the band, and is fed into the machine. He is fed through cogwheels and machinery until someone reverses the band and he is pulled back.
Chaplin is obsessed with doing his work, to the point he cannot even tell the difference between the bolts to screw and the other things to screw. He chases the woman with bolts as the buttons on her skirt outside the factory until he encounters a police and is chased back into the factory.
He proceeds to cause a mayhem within the factory, randomly pulling levers and causing a havoc. The machinery is completely stopped and he is eventually hoisted down to face the President and many of his colleagues.
He is then taken into a police car and driven away from the factory. He is fired from his job.
Soon he is found leading a worker movement on the street, holding a protest flag. The police separate the group and the police point him out as the "leader" of the protests, and once again drive him away in a car.
Chaplin is taken to jail as a communist. There he meets a man doing embroidery. At first his relationship with the man seems chaotic: he accidentally makes the bunk bed above the man fall down on his head.
The man then takes his share of bread during lunch, but Chaplin is not an easy victim. He continually fools the man to get the bread, and eventually takes a piece and shares it with him. Chaplin is a smart man.
He accidentally thinks that the colleague that sits next to him during lunch had a salt container filled with salt: but he had just hidden some drugs in the salt container. Chaplin is drugged thinking that the drugs are salt.
He is then rather disobedient and accidentally walks out of the prison. He ends up helping someone with a gun freeing the prisoners, but he eventually gets shot at. He dodges all the bullets, having superb reactions due to the drugs' energy.
He then helps the prisoners ward get out of the jail cell they were locked into and is rewarded by the prisoner's ward for saving their lives and prison.
Later, someone gets shot on the street. A girl escapes from the police as a witness.
Chaplin is still a prisoner in a cell. He was not released. However, he is soon rewarded for saving the prisoner warden. At the same time as he is released, the minister pays a weekly visit.
Chaplin sits down next to the minister and takes a sip from his coffee. Embarassingly, he first puts his spoon in his mouth with the wrong end in, and then his stomach makes hungry sounds and he disturbs the minister's pet dog.
Chaplin's stomach seems as though he needs to go to the bathroom, but he turns on the radio in order to hide the sound. However, the radio subject is not very pleasant for some reason.
Chaplin is informed that he is to be released, but he asks to stay longer. He is happy in the prison. However, he is released against his will and told to get a job.
Chaplin starts doing construction work. He's building a boat, and is told to find a wedge. But the wedge that he takes holds the whole structure in place, and upon releasing the wedge the whole unfinished boat goes into the ocean.
And so, he goes back to jail.
The woman who fled the crime scene sees someone familiar, steals something and runs away. Apparently, she stole a loaf of bread. She falls into the arms of Chaplin who takes the loaf of bread from her. When the police arrive, Chaplin takes the blame so that he can go back to jail. The woman is left thinking that some stranger just sacrificed himself to help her.
Chaplin eats a great meal, at a restaurant, but doesn't pay the bill. Before he gets to the cashier he calls a police officer on the street to watch him not pay the bill, so that he can go to jail. Finally, after stealing a cigar in the presence of the police officer,he is placed on a police wagon and sent to jail once again. In the wagon he meets the woman who was running away - she is also caught and sent to jail. Perhaps pinned for the murder of the man on the street. The woman remembers Chaplin and starts crying on the wagon. She escapes the wagon violently, causing a car crash.
Chaplin falls out next to the woman, and encourages her to escape. A police officer wakes up next to them both, and Chaplin knocks him out with the officer's baton again. Chaplin chases after the woman, and they escape together after the woman calls out to him wanting him to follow her.
Chaplin and the woman speak to each other on someone's property. They seem to be a happy family, and Chaplin and the woman joke about them. He says: "Can you imagine us, in a home like that?"
A dream is shown about them living together in a house where grapes grow from the door openings, oranges grow in the windows, and cows can be milked just outside. The woman is cooking a steak at the oven, and they both sit down to eat. The woman agrees that it would be wonderful, and they are both determined to live such a life.
Chaplin manages to get a job as a photographer. He is shown his duties, but escapes the place as soon as he is left to his own devices. He quickly goes outside and drags teh woman with him. He steals food from the bar and serves it to the woman, since they are both homeless.
They are both astonished with all the things available in the store where they are now left to their own devices. Chaplin picks up some rollerblades and rolls around in the shop. He almost falls down several stories, but takes on a blindfolda and keeps rolling around, dangerously close to the fall. The woman sees this and is terrified.
However, for some reason she cannot move easily. She has also put on some roller blades and and tries to pull Chaplin away from the fall. But she is nowhere near as adept. They both risk falling down, but she manages to pull him away.
The woman is trying on some clothing, and Chaplin leaves her to "punch in some time clocks". The woman is left alone in a luxurious bed, and is tucked away in the bed. Chaplin promises he will wake her again when the store opens and rolls out with his roller blades, turning off the lights on his way.
However, the store is robbed by two men with guns. They assumed the store would be empty at this time, but they encounter Chaplin rolling towards them. Chaplin is threatened and put against a wall. The robbers shoot towards him as he stumbles around with his roller blades. One of the robbers are from the steel mills, and recognizes Chaplin. He shakes his hand and Chaplin and the robbers immediately become friends. The robbers explain "We are not burglars, we are just hungry."
They then serve him some beer and they all drink together.
The woman keeps sleeping until morning, and wakes up. She realizes she has slept for too long and starts to look for Chaplin.
The store has already opened and the woman must find her way out without alerting anyone.
One of the women selling clothes discover Chaplin lying amongst the clothes on her counter. Chaplin is discovered and taken away once again, but the woman is left.
Ten days later, at the police station.
Chaplin is released from custody and is immediately met by the woman around the corner. She tells him that she has a suprise for him: she's found a home. She leads him to an old run-down shack, and Chaplin is excited. The shac is decorated on the inside, and Chaplin exclaims "It's paradise". He is then hit with a plank on his head, and the table that he leans against falls over. He pulls away a broom from the wall, but it causes the floor to fall down. The woman says "Of course, it's no Buckingham Palace. Chaplin still seems flattered, but leans against a wall and falls through the wall into the lake.
During the night, Chaplin is sleeping on the floor together with the woman. Chaplin wakes in the morning, jumping into the lake, but realizing that it's only a few decimeters shallow. With a great pain in his body he returns from this failed bath, to the woman cooking something in cans.
He is hit by the plank in the roof once again. The great chunk of meat on the table is fake, and the woman puts it away. When Chaplin sits down on his chair, it falls through the floor. So they move the table and find a different spot to eat at.
Chaplin sits down to read the newspaper, and reads that the factory has reopened. He exclaims "Work, at last!", and leaves in a great hurry. "Now we'll get a real home!" he says, and hurries out to work at the factory, away from their free abode.
Chaplin gets hired as the assistant of a mechanic to repair the old machinery. He soon starts to ruin the mechanic's tools. He gets scolded. Then, the mechanic's jacket is also ruined, and Chaplin is apalled. So is the mechanic.
"My family heirloom, ruined!" the mechanic exclaims. Chaplin hustles the big bag of the mechanic's and the mechanic pulls a lever. The bag is pulled into the machinery and all of the mechanic's tools are spit out, all ruined. Soon, the mechanic is also dragged into the machinery and Chaplin is left trying to get him out. However, the mechanic is simply dragged deeper into the machine.
The lunch bell rings, and Chaplin takes a sandwich and sits down. The mechanic exclaims, "Get me out of here!", and then, "Get me my lunch!". Chaplin fetches his lunch.
He feeds him violently, as the machine fed him at the beginning of the movie. The mechanic, lying face-up within the machinery cannot eat properly. When trying to get the mechanic to eat his coffee, he pours it through a pipe, and then a whole chicken. He then carefully places a cake onto the mechanic's face, as though the machine did to Chaplin in the beginning of the movie.
The lunch is over when the bell rings, and Chaplin pulls a lever. The mechanic is fed out of the machine and manages to climb out. Someone asks Chaplin "Where's your boss?". The man says to the mechanic: "Take on your coat, we're on a strike." The mechanic and Chaplin are both left scratching their heads.
During the strike, Chaplin is at first not part of the crowd. However, he accidentally propels a brick onto a policeman's head, getting him driven out on a police car.
Cut to a street where the woman dances in front of a crowd. She is spied by two men in suits, saying "She'll be good for the cafe". Cut to a cafe, the woman is wearing beautiful clothes, dancing in front of a crowd of people attending the cafe. The woman with her new job picks up Chaplin and shows him to her boss. The boss inspects him critically, and asks Chaplin, "Can you wait at a table?" and "Can you sing?" The woman nods frantically, but Chaplin doesn't look so certain. The boss decides to try him out.
Chaplin attends the cafe as a waiter, carrying lots of porcelain plates. He trips over a customer and their dog, but doesn't drop any of the plates. He proceeds to take some orders. The customers are not pleased. "We've waited an hour for Roast Duck." they complain. Chaplin is scolded by a colleague, upset he kicks a door in to his staff's place. The door hits another waiter on the other side, and he drops a huge plate of porcelain on the floor. he gets into a fight, taking the blame for the door opening on him, and fighting violently with someone else, Chaplin attempts to carry out some food but is met with a huge crowd of people. Struggling to get through the crowd and give the customer his roast duck, Chaplin arrives at the table but is consumed once again by the crowd of people.
Eventually, he almost gets to the table again, but is once again consumed by the crowd once they are finished cheering and start to dance again. The customer is not pleased. Shouting over the ruckus, he's looking for the roast duck, but once Chaplin finally arrives, the roast duck is gone. It was stuck to the roof lamp but falls down as Chaplin gets scolded by a colleague, and he catches it on his plate. Dinner is served to the customer, finally.
A commotion of humour is displayed in the cafe, and Chaplin gets chased around to everyone's great entertainment but to the customer's disdain as his roast duck falls on the floor in the commotion.
Chaplin is pulled away from his boss and told "I hope you can sing!" Chaplin rehearses his song with the woman, wearing a nice dress. Chaplin does a silly dance, but keeps forgetting the words. The woman suggests to write the words on Chaplin's cuff, so that he can check. Chaplin seems alright, so he goes outside to sing once again.
Chaplin puts on a show, dancing in front of the audience. Eventually, he starts to sing..? He doesn't know when to start. It's the wrong song! The woman exclaims "Nevermind, just sing the words!" He starts singing, and it's clearly nonsense. Still, the audience is laughing along. The woman is delighted. Somehow, the music is synchronized with Chaplin's performance, and he seems in control of the situation. He may be making up the lyrics as he's going. He's singing in French, it would be interesting to know what he's singing.
He returns to the woman, and they hug in delight. The boss comes into the room and he calls him back to take the applause. The boss offers Chaplin a steady job, and he and the woman hug once again.
However, the woman is pulled on the wrist by a man in a suit. The woman seems disdained. The boss of the cafe and the man in the suit speak to each other, the cafe boss tries to explain that "That's my worker and dancer!" But the men in suits show a photo of the woman wanted for a crime, and Chaplin and the woman quickly escape the cafe, cahsed by the two men in suits. They manage to shake them off, and...
At dawn, out in the middle of nowhere, Chaplin and the woman rest their feet and pack some food. The woman breaks down. "What's the use of trying?" she asks. "Buck up! Never say die. We'll get along" Chaplin encourages her. They walk out on the street together, in the middle of nowhere, determined to live on. As they walk out into the horizon, the movie ends.