Paulette Goddard brings energy and independence to the business of playing a comic hero's companion. In Modern Times, she makes the romance worth caring about, even when the writing gives it too little room.
Fi1m perspective
In Modern Times (1936), Paulette Goddard gives Charlie Chaplin someone who can keep up with him. Her Gamin makes the film's poverty personal, and there is enough life in the pairing to make companionship seem worth the trouble. We were moved by the prospect of these two facing their difficulties together, because she makes their attachment credible. The physical comedy would work without a convincing romance, but we would care less about the people doing it.
The frustration is how little room the screenplay gives that relationship. Goddard makes the pair engaging, then has to carry tender feelings the writing has not given enough time to develop. Chaplin, directing as well as acting, gets a freshness from her that makes the performance seem spontaneous. We recommend the film warmly, with the reservation that its director gives his leading actress less to work with than their appeal together deserves.
The move to Paramount in 1939 brought a run of leading roles in comedies and dramas through the 1940s. With Bob Hope in The Cat and the Canary (1939), she put her energy and timing to work in horror-comedy. She returned to Chaplin as Hannah in The Great Dictator (1940), their last collaboration. Cecil B. DeMille cast her as Loxi Claiborne in Reap the Wild Wind (1942), while the title role in Kitty (1945) is often singled out for her dramatic acting. Her career declined in the late 1940s.
Accounts of her working methods describe extensive preparation and difficulty achieving spontaneity. That does not make the finished performance laboured. In Modern Times, we see the freshness and notice the script's limitations long before any of hers. Start there, then try The Cat and the Canary for more of her comic timing.
Biography
Paulette Goddard was an American actor whose career spanned six decades. She began as a child fashion model and appeared in Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl before moving to Hollywood in the early 1930s.
She gained notice as the romantic partner of Charlie Chaplin, appearing as his leading lady in Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). After signing with Paramount Pictures, she became one of the studio's leading actors in the 1940s, with roles in films including The Women (1939), The Cat and the Canary (1939), Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and Unconquered (1947).
Goddard received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for So Proudly We Hail! (1943). She was married to Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith and Erich Maria Remarque.
