Modern Times/Trivia

• Dawson Casting: Paulette Goddard, 26 when the film was released, playing a teenager fleeing from the County Juvenile Division.
• What Could Have Been: In his autobiography Chaplin mentions an idea for the ending in which Goddard's character becomes a nun. Mercifully averted.
  • It was the first Chaplin movie with a written script. While dialogue is in fact heard on screen (always from artificial sources except when Chaplin "sings"), every scene featuring Chaplin and Goddard's characters talking to each other also had dialogue fully written in advance, which is something Chaplin hadn't really done before. Chaplin was apparently on the fence about whether to make this his first full talkie or not, but ultimately decided against it. He made his talkie debut with The Great Dictator.