Friday, February 5, 2016

Smile


Charlie Chapman's movie "Modern Times" opened in New York on this day in 1936.  It was the last film with his character the Little Tramp, and the only film to include his voice.  From the Writer's Almanac:

When the movie opens, the Little Tramp is working in a factory, but his mindless and repetitive task - which he must perform faster and faster to satisfy the foreman - drives him mad and he literally becomes a cog in the great machine of industry. He spends the rest of the movie in a series of jobs, and tries to get arrested so he can have three meals a day and a place to sleep. 

Eventually, he finds happiness in an anarchist lifestyle with his co-star, Paulette Goddard, who plays the "Gamine." They walk off into the sunset to the strains of the song "Smile," which was composed by Chaplin.

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