I just finished reading Scott Eyman’s book, “Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, And Politics Collided.”
It’s a fascinating read, partly a history of Chaplin’s film work, and partly the sordid story of how ultra-conservatives in the US government and media — including gossip columnists Hedda Hopper, Walter Winchell, and Ed Sullivan — created out of whole cloth a case against Chaplin remaining in America. They colluded with the INS and the FBI (under J. Edgar Hoover) to rescind Chaplin’s right to return to America after he traveled to Europe from his home and studio in Los Angeles to promote his 1952 movie, “Limelight.”
They accused him, without a shred of evidence, of being a Communist sympathizer. They detested his personal life, particularly the younger women he dated and married. Moreover, his long presence in the US without forsaking his British nationality to become an American citizen drove them into a frenzy (despite the hundreds of thousands in taxes he paid). The media wrote incredible lies about Chaplin, often with information provided by Hoover’s thugs, and the print writers returned the favor by giving the FBI any morsel of scandalous gossip they could. Even if they had made it up.
Fortunately, that sort of environment could never happen in our country again — except for the last two decades of lies and hatred from right-wing outlets and MAGA morons, which will be amplified a hundred-fold over the next four years.
Aside from the politically-driven attacks upon Chaplin and his reaction, as well as those of his family, and friends, Eyman tells behind-the-scenes stories I’d never heard about the movies Chaplin made. In one section, he writes about my favorite, his 1936 masterpiece, “Modern Times.”
Though very funny, it remains a biting satire about the impact of mechanization and the Great Depression on workers. I have loved the movie since first seeing it in high school and was thrilled that when my daughter was about the same age and I showed it to her, she reacted with the same glee.
We had to stop and rewind one scene in particular because she was laughing so hard. It’s a sequence in which Chaplin’s character is working in a factory where the boss is trying to install automation to make the production process go faster. One of the gadgets he tests is an automatic feeder that would allow employees to keep working with their hands while the machine pushed food into their mouths, thus eliminating meal breaks. Chaplin is chosen as the subject the equipment will be tested on.
Before I show the clip to you, here’s one tidbit Eyman wrote about its filming:
The feeding machine sequence was shot from October 26 to November 16, 1934. Chaplin made over 200 takes mostly shooting at 18 frames per second, so that the action would be slightly sped up when projected at the standard sound speed of 24 frames per second. After completing a rough cut of the sequence, he shot another 133 takes in order to get the precise rhythm and effect he was after. By the time he was finished, Chaplin had done nearly 400 takes on this sequence alone.
That’s remarkable, especially when you consider how, for each take, Chaplin had to be cleaned up, the props replaced, and the automated mouth-blotter (that’s the part which had my daughter in hysterics) reset. Okay, now, roll the clip…