The Chaplin Collection Man vs. machine! And the winner is every comedy fan when Charlie Chaplin's Tramp confronts assembly line woes in this classic chosen in 1998 as one of the American Film Institute's Top 100 American Films.
The Little Tramp punches in and wigs out inside a factory where gizmos like an employee-feeding machine may someday make the lunch hour last just 15 minutes. Bounced into the ranks of the unemployed, he teams with a street waif (Paulette Goddard) to pursue bliss and a paycheck, finding misadventures as a roller-skating watchman, a singing waiter whose hilarious song is gibberish, a jailbird and more. In the end, as Tramp and waif walk arm and arm into an insecure future, we know they've found neither bliss nor a paycheck, but more importantly, each other. The times and satire remain timeless in
Modern Times.
