In 1936, almost a decade after the advent of the talking pictures, Charlie Chaplin stubbornly, and successfully, presented a full-length silent film, the last to feature his iconic character the Little Tramp. Modern Times isn’t entirely silent — it uses synchronized sound while playing newfangled “recording devices” as part of the new mechanized society — and, in fact, is amazingly ahead of its time in anticipating such things as giant widescreen flat TV screens, invasive security monitors and such. But what works best in this very funny movie, which also inspired the candy-factory assembly line in I Love Lucy, is Chaplin himself, who gives a brilliant comic performance.