In Modern Times, Chaplin satirised the machine age which is shown as, quite literally, reducing human beings to mere cogs in the vast machinery of modern society. Charlie is a mechanic so conditioned by his daily routine that he goes around perpetually tightening non-existent bolts which he sees everywhere - even down the front of a woman's dress.

In this film Chaplin's attiude towards the society we live in was clearly articulated - so clearly, indeed, that many prominent people in America took offence. Those at whom Chaplin seemed to be tilting in his films and in some of his public statements chose to see Red. They accused Chaplin of being a Communist and of disloyalty to America.

Cinema, Thomas Wiseman