THE GREAT DICTATOR Movie Review

1940 Charlie Chaplin

In many ways, this is not a very good movie. But when an important filmmaker addresses an important subject with a directness that few of his contemporaries dared, attention must be paid. And despite the flaws, the resemblance between director-star Charlie Chaplin and Adolph Hitler, the target of his often heavy-handed parody, is eerie. Beyond the similarities in mustaches, facial features, and hair, the two men were born four days apart, Chaplin on April 16, Hitler on April 20, 1889. Perhaps then, the film, or something like it, was inevitable.

It begins in World War I, where Chaplin's famous Little Tramp is a German barber serving as a footsoldier. The first joke—about a massive cannon that aims at the Cathedral of Notre Dame and hits an outhouse—sets an obvious tone. After a fitful series of sight gags, Chaplin is involved in a plane crash that renders him an amnesiac. Years later, he's still in a hospital while the dictator Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin) takes power in Tomania. The Jewish barber leaves the hospital, innocently ignorant of Nazi anti-Semitism and tries to reopen his shop. His new neighbor is Hannah (a gorgeous Paulette Goddard), who stands up to the stormtroopers. The couple spends the rest of the film getting into deeper trouble with the Nazis—though they're never called that—and their attempts at self-preservation seem tragically inadequate.

Hynkel, meanwhile, plots world domination. In an ersatz German that would be used later by Victor Borge and Danny Kaye, Chaplin re-creates the aggressive tone and pace of Hitler's public speeches. The film's most famous sequence has Hynkel dancing a graceful pas de deux with a glowing inflated globe. With one neatly done bit of reverse action, it is a small comic masterpiece. If only the rest matched its subtlety and insight. But too often, Chaplin's anger overpowers the comedy and he sets up humorous situations he cannot resolve. And what is the point of having Hynkel and his Italian counterpart Benzino Napaloni (Jack Oakie) engage in a food fight?

Admittedly, we know so much more now about the horrors of Nazism than Chaplin did in 1940 that lines meant to be funny are now monstrous. When Hynkel's henchman Herring (Billy Gilbert) gleefully says, “We've just discovered the most wonderful, the most marvelous poison gas. It'll kill everybody!” who can laugh?

Hindsight has also given the more serious scenes a quality of sorrow. Hannah's “wouldn't it be nice if they left us alone” speech is hopelessly naive and Chaplin's concluding plea for universal brotherhood is equally heartfelt but inadequate for the situation. To be fair, Chaplin was not at his best with feature-length films, and his kind of comedy did not need sound.

Inspired moments of physical humor flash briefly—spinning to smack a stormtrooper with a paintbrush, slipping into a basement window, skidding down a sidewalk—but they're surrounded by strained scenes that simply don't work.

Cast: Charlie Chaplin (Adenoid Hynkel/Jewish Barber), Paulette Goddard (Hannah), Jack Oakie (Benzino Napaloni), Billy Gilbert (Herring), Reginald Gardiner (Schultz), Henry Daniell (Garbitsch), Maurice Moscovich (Mr. Jaeckel), Emma Dunn (Mrs. Jaeckel), Bernard Gorcey (Mr. Mann), Paul Weigel (Mr. Agar), Chester Conklin, Grace Hayle (Mme. Napaloni), Carter DeHaven (Bacterian Ambassador); Written by: Charlie Chaplin; Cinematography by: Roland H. Totheroh, Karl Struss; Music by: Meredith Willson. Producer: RBC Films, United Artists. Awards: New York Film Critics Awards ‘40: Best Actor (Chaplin); National Film Registry ‘97; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘40: Best Actor (Chaplin), Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Oakie), Best Original Score. Budget: 2M. Running Time: 126 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta, LV.