The Great Dictator




We've just discovered the most wonderful, the most marvelous poisinous gas. It will kill everybody.

Oddly enough, this movie was banned in Germany when released. However, the Fuhrer did screen it twice, but what he actually thought of it will forever remain a mystery.

A Jewish barber (Charlie Chaplin) serves in WWI for Tomania (the fictional stand in for Germany). After an act of heroism, he is left with amnesia. When the new dictator, Adenoid Hynkel (Charlie Chaplin), begins to take control of Tomania, the barber leaves the hospital, unaware that anything has changed. Meanwhile, Hynkel has been having a ball oppressing the Jews in his country and has plans to become dictator of the whole world. The Jewish barber and the girl he likes, Hannah (Paulette Goddard), quickly fall under the dictator's subjugation. By coincidence, both the dictator and the barber look a lot alike.

Some slack has to be cut for Chaplin. He was under political pressures at the time (filming began in 1937), and this was his first all sound film. It shows. Amusingly, some scenes employ no sound at all, and are much funnier because of it. Chaplin also had retired his beloved little Tramp character by this time, although he kept the likeness because he so closely resembled Hitler. As a comedy, there are certainly some good bits and parts, but too often they come in short bursts and several of them are almost clumsy with Chaplin trying to use sound. Ultimately, what really kills The Great Dictator is its bloated length. For being over two hours, not a lot happens. A whole half hour could've easily been cut and it would have had little effect on the story, which spends most of the time spinning its wheels. The expected angle of the dictator and the barber switching places comes as a twelfth hour development, and quite frankly goes largely wasted. But The Great Dictator was an important film for the times, foretelling of the atrocities that the Nazis would commit even though Chaplin had no idea when he made it. And it's priceless watching Chaplin mimic Hitler's wild speeches. The best part has him arguing over a supposed banana that made him trip, all the while sputtering German gibberish.

Chaplin is undeniably brilliant as his Hitler alter ego, but the Jewish barber he plays is somewhat under whelming. He's occasionally funny, but otherwise quite plain. Though that probably does help give his ending speech more credence. The rest of the cast is passable, though Paulette Goddard is more annoying than anything with her "feisty" girl-wanting-to-make-a-difference character.

The moral is undoubtedly a good one, but it probably would've been better to cut more of the flab and keep to the point.



-The Gnome