3 - Tramps in the Machine: Interwar British Vagrancy

Summary

Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film Modern Times presents a provocative image of its tramping hero in a moment of extreme duress. The film follows Chaplin's Little Tramp – whose vagabond garb, consisting of baggy pants, bowler hat and toothbrush moustache, remains iconic to this day – as he works a variety of jobs against the backdrop of the Great Depression. One of the most memorable scenes occurs on the factory floor, where the Little Tramp struggles to keep pace with the frenetic activity of the assembly line. After throwing himself on the conveyer belt, he is quickly swallowed by the gargantuan machine and finds himself trapped among its cogs. As this brief description already implies, the scene is heavy with symbolism in a film that, alongside its slapstick comedy, casts into relief the hardships faced by a significant portion of the population around the world during the interwar period. The social context of the factory scene becomes especially clear in the moments immediately following the Little Tramp's journey into the machine. Sent into a work-induced frenzy, the Little Tramp continually turns knobs, pulls levers and wrenches bolts until he is whisked away from the factory first by a policeman and then by a medical doctor who believes he has suffered a nervous breakdown. Soon after, he runs afoul of the law again and, this time, is thrown into jail. Chaplin's tramp character traverses the factory floor and the jailhouse; he is treated medically so that he can continue working and then arrested when he proves he cannot. In short, Modern Times locates its famous tramp character in a setting where police power and medical oversight combine to regulate public health – and rid society of harmful influences. If the archetypal tramp figure once connoted exceptionally mobile characters, as the previous chapters have attested, then Chaplin asks audiences to reckon with a profound transformation in the tramp's relationship to the state. Rather than being on the outside looking in, the Little Tramp is – quite literally – at the centre of this industrialised society.

The transformed conditions attending vagrancy both in popular culture (as in Chaplin's case) and in law are at the forefront of this chapter. Modern Times is a transitional film in a number of ways. Much of the commentary surrounding it has to do with the film industry itself and Chaplin's role in it.