Skip to main content

#032 Charlie Chaplin: Modern Times vs. A Countess from Hong Kong

By

Download MP3 In today's episode Nate and Austin compare Charlie Chaplin's best and worst rated films, Modern Times (1936) and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), respectively. Nate continues to get off topic every five minutes, Austin won't stop coughing, and they're both ageist. Check back next Sunday at 7pm PST where we will compare Damien Chazelle's Whiplash (2014) and Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009), his best and worst rated films.
Also check out this clip from Buster Keaton's The Cameraman where they show off some innovative cinematography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qcAS1ZmoWA

A Countess from Hong Kong Notes

Worst Rated

PLOT: Natascha, a White Russian countess, stows away on a luxury liner at Hong Kong, determined to seek a new life in America. Natascha hides in the cabin of Ogden Mears, a millionaire diplomat, thereby causing an endless stream of misunderstandings and complications.
  • Ratings: IMDb 6.1 | RT 60% C / 43% A
  • Released: 1967
  • Director: Charlie Chaplin (The Great Dictator, City Lights)
  • Writer(s): Charlie Chaplin
  • Cinematographer: Arthur Ibbetson (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory)
  • Notable actors: Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Sydney Chaplin, Tippi Hedren
  • Budget: $3.5 million
  • Box office: $1.1 million (domestic)
  • Fun Facts:
    • Sophia Loren did not get along with Marlon Brando during shooting, especially after the day they were doing a love scene and he commented, "Did you know you have black hairs up your nostrils?"
    • While Marlon Brando had always greatly admired Charles Chaplin's work and looked upon him as "probably the most talented man the [movie] medium has ever produced," the two superstars did not get along during the shooting of this movie. In his autobiography, Brando described Chaplin as "probably the most sadistic man I'd ever met." Chaplin, on his side, said that working with Brando simply was "impossible."
    • During filming in 1966 at England's Pinewood Studios, the 77-year-old Charles Chaplin was walking around outside discussing ideas when his foot got caught in a grate and he broke his ankle. It was the first serious injury he ever sustained.
    • The first film by Charles Chaplin to not only be in widescreen (which he disliked; see A King in New York (1957)), but in color as well.

Modern Times Notes

Best Rated

PLOT: The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
  • Ratings: IMDb 8.6 | RT 100% C / 95% A
  • Released: 1936
  • Director: Charlie Chaplin (The Great Dictator, City Lights)
  • Writer(s): Charlie Chaplin
  • Cinematographer: Ira H. Morgan and Roland Tetheroh (The Great Dictator, City Lights)
  • Notable actors: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
  • Budget: $1.5 million
  • Box office: $1.4 million (domestic)
  • Fun Facts:
    • Discounting later parodies and novelty films, this was the last major American film to make use of silent film conventions, such as title cards for dialogue. The very last dialogue title card of this film (and thus, it can be said, the entire silent era) belongs to The Tramp, who says "Buck up - never say die! We'll get along."
    • Charles Chaplin allows the Tramp to speak on camera for the first time during the restaurant scene, but insisted that what the Tramp says be universal. Therefore, the song the Tramp sings is in gibberish, but it is possible to follow the story he tells by watching his hand gestures.
    • Charles Chaplin devoted eight days to filming the department store roller-skating scene where he skates blindfolded on the edge of the fourth floor, coming within inches of falling over the edge into the deep stairwell below. The dangerous large drop was actually a painted scene on a pane of glass carefully placed in front of the camera to align with the existing set and create the illusion of great height.
  Intro music: Calm The Fuck Down - Broke For Free / CC BY 3.0  
 

Check out this episode!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Explaining the Ending of No Country for Old Men

By
No Country for Old Men is a tense, spare, and philosophical thriller that upends traditional narrative expectations. While it contains the elements of a crime drama—drug deals, hitmen, shootouts—it refuses to follow a conventional path. By the time the film ends, the central conflict seems unresolved, the villain walks away, and the protagonist we’ve been following disappears offscreen. To understand the film’s ending, one must look beyond plot and consider its themes: fate, violence, moral decay, and the erosion of order in the modern world. The Narrative Setup The story begins with Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a Vietnam veteran who discovers a drug deal gone wrong in the Texas desert and makes off with $2 million in cash. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a remorseless hitman, is sent to retrieve the money. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a weary and introspective lawman, tries to make sense of the violence unfolding around him. At first glance, the film appears to set up a c...
Post a Comment
Read More

Explaining the Ending of MULHOLLAND DRIVE

By
David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive remains one of the most haunting and enigmatic films ever made. It operates like a riddle that refuses to be solved, luring the viewer into a world where time, memory, and identity dissolve into one another. What begins as a mysterious, almost whimsical Hollywood fairy tale gradually transforms into a psychological nightmare. By the end, it’s clear that what we’ve been watching is not a mystery to be unraveled but an emotional landscape, the mind of a woman caught between fantasy and despair. The film tells the story of two women, Betty Elms and Rita, whose lives intertwine after Rita survives a car crash and loses her memory. Betty, a bright and optimistic aspiring actress freshly arrived in Los Angeles, takes her in. Together, they embark on an investigation into Rita’s identity, which unfolds like a noir detective story bathed in dreamlike light. Everything about this world feels heightened: Betty’s charm, the coincidence of events, and the ease with w...
1 comment
Read More

Explaining the Ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey

By
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a masterpiece of science fiction cinema, known for its ambitious themes, pioneering visual effects, and cryptic storytelling. The film culminates in one of the most enigmatic endings in cinematic history, as astronaut Dave Bowman undergoes a surreal journey through a cosmic gateway and is transformed into a new lifeform known as the "Star Child." To understand the ending, one must consider the film’s structure, symbolism, and philosophical inquiries into human evolution, technology, and transcendence. The Journey to the Infinite The final act begins after Dave Bowman disconnects HAL 9000, the malfunctioning AI that had killed his crew. Alone on the spaceship Discovery One , Bowman continues toward Jupiter, following a signal emitted from a monolith discovered on the Moon earlier in the film. These monoliths—rectangular, black, and featureless—are central to the film’s themes. Each appearance marks a leap in human evolution:...
Post a Comment
Read More