FILM 1456: MODERN TIMES

TRIVIA: 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.

This was one of the films which, because of its political sentiments, convinced the House Un-American Activities Committee that Charles Chaplin was a Communist, a charge he adamantly denied.

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.

A full dialogue script was written for the film, as Charles Chaplin had intended to make a complete talkie. According to a documentary on the DVD release, Chaplin went so far as to film a scene with full dialogue before deciding instead to make a partial talkie.

According to some accounts, working together on the film put a strain on Charles Chaplin and Paulette Goddard's relationship. Contrary to the way young actresses were presented on screen, Paulette was to wear shabby clothing and no make-up as the Gamin. When she showed up for filming with her hair beautifully coiffed, he dumped a bucket of water over her head.

Although filmmaking had become the province of large teams of highly specialized technicians, Charles Chaplin resisted delegating tasks, involving himself in every aspect of production, even to the point of blowing bubbles in a pail of water to simulate stomach-grumbling sounds.

FILM 1453: THE WAGES OF FEAR

TRIVIA: Accusations of anti-Americanism led to the US censor cutting several key scenes from the film.

Filming began on 27 August 1951 and was scheduled to run for nine weeks. Numerous problems plagued the production, however. The south of France had an unusually rainy season that year, causing vehicles to bog down, cranes to fall over and sets to be ruined. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot broke his ankle. Véra Clouzot fell ill. The production was 50 million francs over budget. By the end of November, only half the film was completed. With the days growing short from winter, production shut down for six months. The second half of the film was finally completed in the summer of 1952.

Yves Montand and Charles Vanel both contracted conjunctivitis after filming in a pool of crude oil and being exposed to gas fumes.

Henri-Georges Clouzot originally planned on shooting the film in Spain, but Yves Montand refused to work in Spain as long as fascist dictator Francisco Franco was in power. Filming took place instead in the south of France, near Saint-Gilles, in the Camargue. The village seen in the film was built from scratch.

FILM 1408: MAN PUSH CART

A night in the life of a former Pakistani rock star who now sells coffee from his push cart on the streets of Manhattan.

FILM 1355: THE NIGHTS OF CABIRIA

TRIVIA:  During the editing of this film, editor Leo Cattozzo developed the CIR self-perforating adhesive tape splicer (also known as "Costruzione Incollatrici Rapide", "the Cattozzo", Guillotine-, CIRO- or ARRI Splicer) which made him rich in the 1960s and for which he won an Academy Award in 1989.

Federico Fellini cast film editor Leo Cattozzo as "The Man with the Sack" and wanted to keep that sequence in the release print over the objections of producer Dino De Laurentiis. De Laurentiis, who thought the scene slowed the film down, finally had to resort to stealing the scene from the editing room. According to DeLaurentiis about five to seven years after its original release, Fellini called him up and begged him to give him back the sequence so he could restore it. As "Cabiria" had now achieved a classic status, the producer agreed.

FILM 1244: METROPOLIS

TRIVIA: Much to Fritz Lang's dismay, Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were big fans of the film. Goebbels met with Lang and told him that he could be made an honorary Aryan despite his Jewish background. Goebbels told him "Mr Lang, we decide who is Jewish and who is not". Lang left for Paris that very night.

Was so influential on Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster that they named their character's city after it.

Adjusting for inflation, the budget for Metropolis (5m Reichsmarks) ran around $200 million (June, 2007).

Unemployment and inflation were so bad in Germany at the time that the producers had no trouble finding 500 malnourished children to film the flooding sequences.

The robot of this film inspired the look for C-3PO in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

The multiple-exposed sequences were not created in a lab but right during the filming on the set. The film was rewound in the camera and then exposed again right away. This was done up to 30 times.

The film takes place in 2026.

The mechanical right hand of one of the characters was later imitated in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).