On February 4, 1936, with the release of Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin finally entered the world of the talkies. Well, sort of. Chaplin’s commentary on the effect of technology and industrialization on people’s lives was originally written as a movie with full dialogue, however early on in the filming process Chaplin decided to only use partial sound in the picture. The way that he utilized sound was in line with the theme of the film, as the spoken word is only heard through technological devices (radios, televisions, loudspeakers, etc.). And in the scene in which Chaplin’s alter ego, the Little Tramp, sings, it’s in the universal language of gibberish, with the message of the song conveyed only through Chaplin’s hand gestures. Made during and about the Great Depression, Modern Times sees the tramp, a factory worker, trying to survive in an adverse economic environment and finding hope in the love of an impoverished orphan girl (Paulette Goddard, Chaplin’s lover at the time). Though the film’s foreword declared it “a story of industry, of individual enterprise—humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness," Chaplin ultimately chose entertainment over political discourse, ditching a dark ending in which the tramp goes mad for one in which he and Goddard walk off into the sunset together. In the New York Times’ review of the film, however, it stated that allegedly “no less an authority than Shumiatsky, head of the Soviet film industry, had counseled [Chaplin] …and that Chaplin, accepting that advice, had made significant changes.” This Communist connection in Modern Times would later be used against Chaplin by McCarthyites who accused him of “un-American” activities and in 1952 revoked his re-entry permit, forcing him into exile in Switzerland.

Born today in London in 1918, Ida Lupino has yet to receive the vaunted reputation which she arguably deserves. The glamorous Anglo-American actress should be seen as a true feminist icon, the first woman to take the rare and difficult step from being a star in front of the camera to an influential player behind it, someone who went on to become an active director on both the big and small screens. In the 40s, Lupino joked that she was the “poor man’s Bette Davis” but refused to take on the roles that Davis turned down. The impact of this was twofold: it meant that she sought out darker, more interesting roles such as in the noirs They Drive by Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941), but her refusal to accept all work offered her – a breach of her contract with Warner Brothers – lead to her being suspended a number of times. During these suspensions, Lupino would observe the intricacies of filmmaking and shifted her focus to the extent that she left Warners, became a free agent actress and started Filmways, an independent production company, with her husband, producer Collier Young. When, in 1949, one of Filmways’ directors had a heart attack midway through production, Lupino took over at the helm and found that she had a talent for directing. Originating her own projects, Lupino (who wrote as well as directed) initially focused on films about women’s issues – including Outrage (1950), which dealt with the subject of rape – but later gravitated to film noir, and joked that she was now the "poor man's Don Siegel." She ultimately directed seven films (five of which she wrote), and directed countless episodes of network television shows through till the late 60s, from The Fugitive and The Twilight Zone to Bewitched and Gilligan’s Island. As an actress, she kept on working – again, mostly in television – until the late 1970s, and died in 1995.