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Hynkel is initially opposed by Benzino Napaloni, dictator of Bacteria, in his plans to invade Osterlich. Hynkel invites Napaloni to a military show to impress him with a display of military might and psychological warfare, but this ends in disaster. After some friction, a comedic food fight between the two leaders and a deal between the two leaders on which Hynkel immediately reneges, his invasion proceeds. Hannah had emigrated to Osterlich to escape Hynkel, but once again finds herself living under Hynkel's regime.
Hynkel is initially opposed by Benzino Napaloni, dictator of Bacteria, in his plans to invade Osterlich. Hynkel invites Napaloni to a military show to impress him with a display of military might and psychological warfare, but this ends in disaster. After some friction, a comedic food fight between the two leaders and a deal between the two leaders on which Hynkel immediately reneges, his invasion proceeds. Hannah had emigrated to Osterlich to escape Hynkel, but once again finds herself living under Hynkel's regime.


Schultz and Omler escape from the camp wearing Tomainian uniforms. Border guards mistake Omler for Hynkel, to whom he is nearly identical in appearance. Conversely, Hynkel, on a duck-hunting trip, falls overboard and is mistaken for Omler and is arrested by his own soldiers. Omler, now forced by circumstances to assume Hynkel's identity, is taken to the capital of Osterlich to make a victory speech. Garbitsch, in introducing "Hynkel" to the throngs, decries [[free speech]] and argues for the subjugation of the Jews. The barber then makes a rousing speech, reversing Hynkel's antisemitic policies and declaring that Tomania and Osterlich will now be a free nation and a [[democracy]]. He calls for humanity in general to break free from dictatorships and use science and progress to make the world better instead.<ref>[[wikiquote:Charlie Chaplin#The Great Dictator]] (1940)</ref>
Schultz and Omler escape from the camp wearing Tomainian uniforms. Border guards mistake Omler for Hynkel, to whom he is nearly identical in appearance. Conversely, Hynkel, on a duck-hunting trip, falls overboard and is mistaken for Omler and is arrested by his own soldiers. Omler, now forced by circumstances to assume Hynkel's identity, is taken to the capital of Osterlich to make a victory speech. Garbitsch, in introducing "Hynkel" to the throngs, decries [[free speech]] and argues for the subjugation of the Jews. The barber then makes a rousing speech, reversing Hynkel's antisemitic policies and declaring that Tomainia and Osterlich will now be a free nation and a [[democracy]]. He calls for humanity in general to break free from dictatorships and use science and progress to make the world better instead.<ref>[[wikiquote:Charlie Chaplin#The Great Dictator]] (1940)</ref>


Hannah, now an impoverished laborer in a vineyard in Osterlich, hears the barber's speech on the radio, and is amazed when Omler addresses her directly: "Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed and brutality. Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up!" As she rises, Mr. Jaeckel asks Hannah, "Hannah, did you hear that?" The girl silences him with a gesture, saying, "Listen," and turns her face, radiant with joy and hope, toward the sunlight.<ref>Eidenmuller, Michael E. [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechthegreatdictator.html "The Great Dictator" (1940)"]. American Rhetoric. Retrieved April 1, 2012.</ref>
Hannah, now an impoverished laborer in a vineyard in Osterlich, hears the barber's speech on the radio, and is amazed when Omler addresses her directly: "Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed and brutality. Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up!" As she rises, Mr. Jaeckel asks Hannah, "Hannah, did you hear that?" The girl silences him with a gesture, saying, "Listen," and turns her face, radiant with joy and hope, toward the sunlight.<ref>Eidenmuller, Michael E. [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechthegreatdictator.html "The Great Dictator" (1940)"]. American Rhetoric. Retrieved April 1, 2012.</ref>


==Cast==
== Cast ==
* [[Charlie Chaplin]] as Omler, the main protagonist. Omler is a Jewish barber in the Jew City. He is a soldier during World War I and loses his memory for about 20 years. He is then wanted by Hynkel. He later becomes friends with Schultz and becomes the Fuhrer of Tomania.
* [[Charlie Chaplin]] as Omler, the main protagonist. Omler is a Jewish barber in the ghetto. He is a soldier during World War I and loses his memory for about 20 years. He is then wanted by Hynkel. He later becomes friends with Schultz and becomes the Fuhrer of Tomainia.
* [[Paulette Goddard]] as Hannah, Omler's neighbor. She lives in the Jew City next to Omler's barber shop. She is against the Double Cross's Stormtroopers and is a supporter of Omler.
* [[Paulette Goddard]] as Hannah, Omler's neighbor. She lives in the ghetto next to Omler's barber shop. She supports Omler against the Double Cross's Stormtroopers.
* [[Charlie Chaplin]] as Adenoid Hynkel, the main antagonist. Hynkel is the Dictator of Tomania (a parody of Germany and [[Adolf Hitler]]) and he wants all his stormtroopers to attack the Jews. He later forces stormtroopers to arrest Schultz and to hunt down Omler. He is arrested by his own soldiers for being mistakened as Omler.
* [[Charlie Chaplin]] as Adenoid Hynkel, the main antagonist. Hynkel is the Dictator of Tomainia (a parody of Germany and [[Adolf Hitler]]) and he wants all his stormtroopers to attack the Jews. He later forces stormtroopers to arrest Schultz and to hunt down Omler. He is arrested by his own soldiers for being mistaken as Omler.
* [[Jack Oakie]] as Benzino Napaloni - Dictator of Bacteria.
* [[Jack Oakie]] as Benzino Napaloni - Dictator of Bacteria, a parody of Italian dictator [[Benito Mussolini]].
* [[Reginald Gardiner]] as Commander Schultz, a supporting protagonist. In World War I, he is a soldier of Tomania. In the 1930s, he is a commander of the Soldiers and he forces Troops to leave the Jews alone. After he is arrested by Hynkel, he becomes a loyal helper of Omler. He is the leader of the Invasion of Osterlich and he helps Omler the steps to become Fuhrer.
* [[Reginald Gardiner]] as Commander Schultz, a supporting protagonist. In World War I, he is a soldier of Tomainia. In the 1930s, he is a commander of the Soldiers and he forces Troops to leave the Jews alone. After he is arrested by Hynkel, he becomes a loyal helper of Omler. He is the leader of the Invasion of Osterlich and he helps Omler the steps to become Fuhrer.
* [[Henry Daniell]] as Garbitsch, one of Hynkel's top ranking soldiers. Garbitsch is the Secretary of the Interior and Minister of Propaganda. He is very loyal to Hynkel and "Hynkel"
* [[Henry Daniell]] as Garbitsch, one of Hynkel's top ranking soldiers. Garbitsch, a parody of [[Joseph Goebbels]], is the Secretary of the Interior and Minister of Propaganda. He is very loyal to Hynkel.
* [[Billy Gilbert]] as Herring, Hynkel's top ranking soldiers. Herring is Minister of War. He is an inventor and he annoys Hynkel by making failure inventions.
* [[Billy Gilbert]] as Herring, Hynkel's top ranking soldiers. Herring, a parody of [[Hermann Göring]] is Minister of War. He is an inventor and he annoys Hynkel by making failed inventions.
* Grace Hayle as Madame Napaloni, the wife of Benzino who later dances with Hynkel.
* Grace Hayle as Madame Napaloni, the wife of Benzino who later dances with Hynkel.
* [[Carter DeHaven|Carter De Haven]] as Bacterian ambassador
* [[Carter DeHaven|Carter De Haven]] as Bacterian ambassador
* Maurice Moscovich and [[Emma Dunn]] as Mr. Jaeckel, a very aged man and friend who lives with Hannah.
* Maurice Moscovich and [[Emma Dunn]] as Mr. and Mrs. Jaeckel, an elderly couple who befriend Hannah.
* Bernard Gorcey as Mr. Mann
* Bernard Gorcey as Mr. Mann
* [[Paul Weigel]] as Mr. Agar
* [[Paul Weigel]] as Mr. Agar

Revision as of 20:24, 26 January 2013

The Great Dictator
File:The Great Dictator.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCharles Chaplin
Written byCharles Chaplin
Produced byCharles Chaplin
StarringCharlie Chaplin
Paulette Goddard
Jack Oakie
CinematographyKarl Struss
Roland Totheroh
Edited byWillard Nico
Harold Rice
Music byCharles Chaplin
Meredith Willson
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release dates
  • October 15, 1940 (1940-10-15) (New York)
  • March 7, 1941 (1941-03-07)
Running time
124 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Esperanto
BudgetUS$2 million
Box office$2,000,000[2]

The Great Dictator is a 1940 American comedy-drama film starring, written, produced, composed, and directed by Charlie Chaplin, following the tradition of many of his other films. Having been the only Hollywood filmmaker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, this was Chaplin's first true talking picture as well as his most commercially successful film.[3]

At the time of its first release, the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Chaplin's film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini's fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis, whom he excoriates in the film as "machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts".

Chaplin's film followed only a few months after Hollywood's first parody of Hitler, the short subject You Nazty Spy! by the Three Stooges,[4] although Chaplin had been planning it for years before. Hitler had been previously allegorically pilloried in the German film by Fritz Lang, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.

Plot

During a battle in the last months of World War I, the protagonist, Omler, a barber by profession, is fighting for the Central Powers in the army of the fictional nation of Tomainia, comically blundering through the trenches in combat scenes. Upon hearing a fatigued pilot pleading for help, the private attempts to rescue the exhausted officer, Commander Schultz. The two board Schultz's nearby airplane and fly off, escaping enemy fire in the nick of time. Schultz reveals that he is carrying important dispatches that could win the war. However, the plane loses fuel and crashes in a marsh. They both survive, but Omler suffers from memory loss. As medics arrive, Commander Schultz gives them the dispatches, but is told that the war has just ended and Tomainia lost.

Twenty years later, as Omler runs away from the hospital and is subsequently released, Adenoid Hynkel (also played by Chaplin), the ruthless dictator of Tomainia, has undertaken to persecute Jews throughout the land, aided by Secretary of the Interior (and an additional post, Minister of Propaganda) Garbitsch and Minister of War Herring. The symbol of Hynkel's fascist regime is the "double cross", and Hynkel himself speaks in a macaronic parody of the German language, "translated" at humorously obvious parts in the speech by an overly concise English-speaking news voice-over.

Chaplin as Adenoid Hynkel

Omler, unaware of Hynkel's rise to power, returns to his barbershop in the Jewish ghetto[disambiguation needed] and is shocked when storm troopers paint "Jew" on the windows of his shop. In his ensuing slapstick scuffle with the stormtroopers, Hannah, a beautiful resident of the ghetto, knocks both Stormtroopers on the head with a frying pan. Omler finds a friend and ultimately a love interest in Hannah. Soon, Omler is attacked again by Stormtroopers, but is saved when Commander Schultz, now a high official in Hynkel's government, intervenes. Schultz recognizes Omler, who is reminded of the war by Schultz and therefore regains his memory. Though surprised to find him a Jew, Schultz orders the storm troopers to leave him and Hannah alone.

Hynkel relaxes his stance on Tomainian Jewry in an attempt to woo a Jewish financier into giving him a loan to support his regime. Egged on by Garbitsch, Hynkel has become obsessed with the idea of being Emperor of the world, dancing at one point with a large, inflatable globe, to the tune of the Prelude to Act I of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin.

Hynkel plans to invade the neighboring country of Osterlich, and needs the loan to finance the invasion. When the Jewish financier refuses, Hynkel reinstates and intensifies his persecution of the Jews contrary to Garbitsch's advice. When Schultz, who is empathetic to the Jews, voices his objection to the pogrom, Hynkel denounces Schultz as a supporter of democracy and a traitor, and orders him placed in a concentration camp. Schultz flees to the ghetto and begins planning to overthrow the Hynkel regime with Hannah, Omler and other residents there. After planning and then abandoning a proposed suicide mission, Schultz and Omler are captured and condemned to the camp.

Chaplin with Jack Oakie as Benzino Napaloni

Hynkel is initially opposed by Benzino Napaloni, dictator of Bacteria, in his plans to invade Osterlich. Hynkel invites Napaloni to a military show to impress him with a display of military might and psychological warfare, but this ends in disaster. After some friction, a comedic food fight between the two leaders and a deal between the two leaders on which Hynkel immediately reneges, his invasion proceeds. Hannah had emigrated to Osterlich to escape Hynkel, but once again finds herself living under Hynkel's regime.

Schultz and Omler escape from the camp wearing Tomainian uniforms. Border guards mistake Omler for Hynkel, to whom he is nearly identical in appearance. Conversely, Hynkel, on a duck-hunting trip, falls overboard and is mistaken for Omler and is arrested by his own soldiers. Omler, now forced by circumstances to assume Hynkel's identity, is taken to the capital of Osterlich to make a victory speech. Garbitsch, in introducing "Hynkel" to the throngs, decries free speech and argues for the subjugation of the Jews. The barber then makes a rousing speech, reversing Hynkel's antisemitic policies and declaring that Tomainia and Osterlich will now be a free nation and a democracy. He calls for humanity in general to break free from dictatorships and use science and progress to make the world better instead.[5]

Hannah, now an impoverished laborer in a vineyard in Osterlich, hears the barber's speech on the radio, and is amazed when Omler addresses her directly: "Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. The clouds are lifting. The sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world, a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed and brutality. Look up, Hannah. The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up!" As she rises, Mr. Jaeckel asks Hannah, "Hannah, did you hear that?" The girl silences him with a gesture, saying, "Listen," and turns her face, radiant with joy and hope, toward the sunlight.[6]

Cast

  • Charlie Chaplin as Omler, the main protagonist. Omler is a Jewish barber in the ghetto. He is a soldier during World War I and loses his memory for about 20 years. He is then wanted by Hynkel. He later becomes friends with Schultz and becomes the Fuhrer of Tomainia.
  • Paulette Goddard as Hannah, Omler's neighbor. She lives in the ghetto next to Omler's barber shop. She supports Omler against the Double Cross's Stormtroopers.
  • Charlie Chaplin as Adenoid Hynkel, the main antagonist. Hynkel is the Dictator of Tomainia (a parody of Germany and Adolf Hitler) and he wants all his stormtroopers to attack the Jews. He later forces stormtroopers to arrest Schultz and to hunt down Omler. He is arrested by his own soldiers for being mistaken as Omler.
  • Jack Oakie as Benzino Napaloni - Dictator of Bacteria, a parody of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
  • Reginald Gardiner as Commander Schultz, a supporting protagonist. In World War I, he is a soldier of Tomainia. In the 1930s, he is a commander of the Soldiers and he forces Troops to leave the Jews alone. After he is arrested by Hynkel, he becomes a loyal helper of Omler. He is the leader of the Invasion of Osterlich and he helps Omler the steps to become Fuhrer.
  • Henry Daniell as Garbitsch, one of Hynkel's top ranking soldiers. Garbitsch, a parody of Joseph Goebbels, is the Secretary of the Interior and Minister of Propaganda. He is very loyal to Hynkel.
  • Billy Gilbert as Herring, Hynkel's top ranking soldiers. Herring, a parody of Hermann Göring is Minister of War. He is an inventor and he annoys Hynkel by making failed inventions.
  • Grace Hayle as Madame Napaloni, the wife of Benzino who later dances with Hynkel.
  • Carter De Haven as Bacterian ambassador
  • Maurice Moscovich and Emma Dunn as Mr. and Mrs. Jaeckel, an elderly couple who befriend Hannah.
  • Bernard Gorcey as Mr. Mann
  • Paul Weigel as Mr. Agar

Production

According to Jürgen Trimborn's biography of Nazi propaganda film-maker Leni Riefenstahl, both Chaplin and French film-maker René Clair viewed Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will together at a showing at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Film maker Luis Buñuel reports that Clair was utterly horrified by the effectiveness of the film, crying out that this should never be shown or the West was lost. Chaplin, on the other hand, laughed uproariously at the film. It provided many elements of The Great Dictator, and it was repeated viewings of Will that allowed Chaplin to so closely mimic Hitler's mannerisms. It is suspected Chaplin's decision to go ahead with making The Great Dictator was finalized by his viewing of Riefenstahl's film.[7] The rally speech by Hynkel, delivered in German-sounding gibberish, is a caricature of Hitler's oratory style, which Chaplin studied carefully in newsreels.[8]

The film was directed by Chaplin (with his half-brother Wheeler Dryden as assistant director), and also written and produced by Chaplin. The film was shot largely at the Charlie Chaplin Studios and other locations around Los Angeles. The elaborate World War I scenes were filmed in Laurel Canyon. Chaplin and Meredith Willson composed the music. Filming began in September 1939 and finished six months later. Chaplin was motivated by the escalating violence and repression of Jews by the Nazis throughout the late 1930s, the magnitude of which was conveyed to him personally by his European Jewish friends and fellow artists. The Third Reich's repressive nature and militarist tendencies were also well-known at the time. However, Chaplin later stated that he would not have made the film if he had known of the true extent of the Nazis' crimes.[3]

Chaplin's half-brother Sydney directed and starred in a 1921 film called King, Queen, Joker in which, like Charlie, he played the dual role of a barber and ruler of a country who is about to be overthrown. According to Janiss Garza, Chaplin was sued in the 1940s over plagiarism problems with The Great Dictator. Apparently neither the suing party nor Chaplin himself brought up his own brother's King, Queen, Joker of twenty years before.[9]

As Hitler and his Nazi Party rose to prominence, Chaplin's popularity throughout the world became greater than ever; he was mobbed by fans on a 1931 trip to Berlin, which annoyed the Nazis, who published a book in 1934 titled The Jews Are Looking at You, in which the comedian was described as "a disgusting Jewish acrobat" (despite the fact that Chaplin was not Jewish). Ivor Montagu, a close friend of Chaplin, relates that he sent Chaplin a copy of the book and always believed this was the genesis of Dictator.[10] The similarity of the moustaches of Hitler and Chaplin has been widely noted. In the 1930s cartoonists and comedians often noted the resemblance. Chaplin chose to capitalize on this resemblance in order to give his Little Tramp character a "reprieve".[11]

Charlie Chaplin's son Charles Jr. describes how his father was haunted by the similar backgrounds of Hitler and himself. He writes,

Their destinies were poles apart. One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. “Just think,” he would say uneasily, “he’s the madman, I’m the comic. But it could have been the other way around."[12]

Chaplin prepared the story throughout 1938 and 1939, and began filming in September 1939, one week after the beginning of World War II. He finished filming almost six months later. The 2002 TV documentary on the making of the film, The Tramp and the Dictator,[13] presented newly discovered footage of the film production (shot by Chaplin's elder half-brother Sydney) which showed Chaplin's initial attempts at the film's ending, filmed before the fall of France.[3]

According to The Tramp and the Dictator, the film was not only sent to Hitler, but an eyewitness confirmed he saw it.[3] This allegation has however, been denied by Hitler's architect and friend Albert Speer.[14] According to the Internet Movie Database, Chaplin, after being told Hitler saw the movie, replied: "I'd give anything to know what he thought of it."[15] Hitler's response is not recorded, but he is said to have viewed the film twice.[16]

Some of the signs in the shop windows of the ghettoized Jewish population in the film are written in Esperanto, a language which Hitler condemned as a Jewish plot to internationalize and destroy German culture, perhaps because its inventor was a Polish Jew.[17]

The Jewish barber and Chaplin's Tramp character

Chaplin (as the barber) absent-mindedly attempts to shave Goddard (as Hannah) in this image from the trailer for the film.

There is no consensus on the relationship between the film's Jewish barber and Chaplin's earlier Tramp character, but the trend is to view the barber as a variation on the theme. Famed French film director François Truffaut noted that early in the production, Chaplin said he would not play The Tramp in a sound film, and he considers the barber an entirely different character.[18] However, Turner Classic Movies says that years later, Chaplin acknowledged a connection between the barber and The Tramp. Specifically, "There is some debate as to whether the unnamed Jewish barber is intended as the Tramp's final incarnation. Although his memoirs frequently refer to the barber as the Little Tramp, Chaplin said in 1937 that he would not play the Little Tramp in his sound pictures."[19] In My Life, Chaplin would write, "Of course! As Hitler I could harangue the crowds all I wished. And as the tramp, I could remain silent." In his review of the film, Roger Ebert says that "Chaplin was technically not playing the Tramp", but Ebert also states that, "He [Chaplin] put the Little Tramp and $1.5 million of his own money on the line to ridicule Hitler".[20]

Critics who view the barber as different include Stephen Weissman, whose book Chaplin: A Life speaks of Chaplin here "abandoning traditional pantomime technique and his little tramp character."[21] DVD reviewer Mark Bourne bows to Chaplin's earlier statement: "Granted, the barber bears more than a passing resemblance to the Tramp, even affecting the familiar bowler hat and cane. But Chaplin was clear that the barber is not the Tramp and The Great Dictator is not a Tramp movie."[22] The Scarecrow Movie Guide also views the barber as different.[23]

However, Annette Insdorf, in her book Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust, writes that "There was something curiously appropriate about the little tramp impersonating the dictator, for by 1939 Hitler and Chaplin were perhaps the two most famous men in the world. The tyrant and the tramp reverse roles in The Great Dictator, permitting the eternal outsider to address the masses..."[24] Similarly, in The 50 Greatest Jewish Movies, Kathryn Bernheimer writes, "What he chose to say in The Great Dictator, however, was just what one might expect from the Little Tramp. Film scholars have often noted that the Little Tramp resembles a Jewish stock figure, the ostracized outcast, an outsider..."[25]

Several reviewers speak of a morphing of The Little Tramp into the Jewish barber. In Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s, Thomas Schatz writes of "Chaplin's Little Tramp transposed into a meek Jewish barber",[26] while, in Hollywood in Crisis: Cinema and American Society, 1929-1939, Colin Shindler writes that "The universal Little Tramp is transmuted into a specifically Jewish barber whose country is about to be absorbed into the totalitarian empire of Adenoid Hynkel."[27] Finally, in A Distant Technology: Science Fiction Film and the Machine Age, J. P. Telotte writes that "The little tramp figure is here reincarnated as the Jewish barber".[28]

A full two-page discussion of the relationship between the barber and The Tramp appears in Eric L. Flom's book Chaplin in the Sound Era: An Analysis of the Seven Talkies in which he concludes:

Perhaps the distinction between the two characters would be more clear if Chaplin hadn't relied on some element of confusion to attract audiences to the picture. With The Great Dictator's twist of mistaken identity, the similarity between the Barber and the Tramp allowed Chaplin break [sic] with his old persona in the sense of characterization, but to capitalize on him in a visual sense. The similar nature of the Tramp and Barber characterizations may have been an effort by Chaplin to maintain his popularity with filmgoers, many of whom by 1940 had never seen a silent picture during the silent era. Chaplin may have created a new character from the old, but he nonetheless counted on the Charlie person to bring audiences into the theaters for his first foray into sound, and his boldest political statement to date.[29]

Reception

The film was well received at the time of its release, and was popular with the American public. The film was also popular in the United Kingdom, drawing 9 million to the cinemas,[30] despite Chaplin's fears that wartime audiences would dislike a comedy about a dictator. During its production the British government announced that it would prohibit its exhibition in the United Kingdom in keeping with its appeasement policy concerning Nazi Germany.[31] However, by the time the film was released, the UK was at war with Germany and the film was now welcomed in part for its obvious propaganda value. In 1941, London's Prince of Wales Theatre screened its UK premiere. The film had been banned in many parts of Europe, and the theatre's owner, Alfred Esdaile, was apparently fined for showing it.[32] It eventually became Chaplin's highest grossing film with a total of 11 million worldwide.

The film was Chaplin's first true talking picture and helped shake off accusations of Luddism following his previous release, the mostly dialogue-free Modern Times, released in 1936 when the silent era had all but ended in the late 1920s. The Great Dictator does, however, feature several silent scenes more in-keeping with Chaplin's previous films. To add to that, some audiences had come to expect Chaplin to make silent films even during the sound era.[33]

In his 1964 autobiography, Chaplin stated that he would not have been able to make such jokes about the Nazi regime had the extent of the Nazi horrors been known, particularly the death camps and the Holocaust. While Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 To Be or Not To Be dealt with similar themes (even including another mistaken-identity Hitler figure), after the scope of Nazi atrocities became apparent it took nearly twenty years before any other films dared to satirize the era.[34]

In 1997, The Great Dictator was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".[35]

In 2000, the American Film Institute ranked the film #37 in its "100 Years... 100 Laughs" list.[36]

Awards

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards:

Score

The score was written and directed by Meredith Willson, later to become well-known as creator of the 1957 musical comedy The Music Man.[37] Willson wrote:

I've seen [Chaplin] take a sound track and cut it all up and paste it back together and come up with some of the dangdest effects you ever heard—effects a composer would never think of. Don't kid yourself about that one. He would have been great at anything — music, law, ballet dancing, or painting — house, sign, or portrait. I got the screen credit for The Great Dictator music score, but the best parts of it were all Chaplin's ideas, like using the Lohengrin "Prelude" in the famous balloon-dance scene.[38]

According to Willson, the scene in which Chaplin shaves a customer to Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 had been filmed before he arrived, using a phonograph record for timing. Willson was to re-record it with the full studio orchestra, fitting the music to the action. They had planned to do it painstakingly, recording eight measures or less at a time, after running through the whole scene to get the overall idea. Chaplin decided to record the runthrough in case anything was usable, and "by dumb luck we had managed to catch every movement, and that was the first and only 'take' made of the scene, the one used in the finished picture".[38]

Chaplin in the globe scene

James L. Neibaur has noted that among the many parallels that Chaplin noted between his own life and Hitler's was an affinity for Wagner's music,[39] and Chaplin's general fondness for Wagner has also been noted in studies of Chaplin's overall use of film music.[40] Many commentators have noted simply Chaplin's use of Wagner's Lohengrin prelude where Hynckel dances with the globe-balloon.[39][41][42] Actually, Chaplin had a dual use of Lohengrin prelude in the film, both where dictator Hynkel dances with the globe-balloon, and then near the conclusion, as the exiled Hannah listens to the Jewish barber's speech celebrating democracy and freedom.[43] The music completes and climaxes only in the barber's pro-democracy speech, but is interrupted by the globe-balloon popping in the dictator's dance.

Commenting on this, Lutz Peter Koepnick writes

How can Wagner at once help emphasize a progressivist vision of human individualism and a fascist preview of absolute domination? How can the master's music simultaneously signify a desire for lost emotional integrity and for authoritative grandeur?
Chaplin's dual use of Lohengrin points towards unsettling conjunctions of Nazi culture and Hollywood entertainment. Like Adorno, Chaplin understands Wagner as a signifier of both: the birth of fascism out of the spirit of the total work of art, and the origin of mass culture out of the spirit of the most arduous aesthetic program of the nineteenth century. Unlike Adorno [who identifies American mass culture and fascist spectacle], Chaplin wants his audience to make crucial distinctions between competing Wagnerianisms...Both...rely on the driving force of utopian desires, on...the promise of self-transcendence and authentic collectivity, but they channel these mythic longings in fundamentally different directions. Although [Chaplin] exposes the puzzling modernity of Nazi politics, Chaplin is unwilling to write off either Wagner or industrial culture. [Chaplin suggests] Hollywood needs Wagner as never before in order to at once condemn the use of fantasy in fascism and warrant the utopian possibilities in industrial culture.[44]

Lawsuit

The film was the subject of a plagiarism lawsuit (Bercovici v. Chaplin) in 1947 against Chaplin. The case was settled, with Chaplin paying Konrad Bercovici $95,000.[45] Bercovici claimed that he had created ideas such as Chaplin playing a dictator and a dance with a globe, and that Chaplin had discussed with him his five-page outline for several hours.[31] Chaplin insisted in his autobiography that he had been the sole writer of the movie's script. He came to a settlement, though, because of his "unpopularity in the States at that moment and being under such court pressure, [he] was terrified, not knowing what to expect next."[46]

Home media

A digitally restored version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection in May 2011. The extras feature color production footage shot by Chaplin’s half-brother Sydney, deleted barbershop sequence from Chaplin’s 1919 film Sunnyside, barbershop sequence from Sydney Chaplin’s 1921 film King, Queen, Joker, and The Tramp and the Dictator (2001), Kevin Brownlow and Michael Kloft’s documentary paralleling the lives of Chaplin and Hitler, including interviews with author Ray Bradbury, director Sidney Lumet, screenwriter Budd Schulberg, and others. There is also a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Wood, Chaplin’s 1940 New York Times defense of his movie, a reprint from critic Jean Narboni on the film’s final speech, and Al Hirschfeld’s original press book illustrations.[47]

See also

References

  1. ^ "THE GREAT DICTATOR (U)". British Board of Film Classification. 1940-12-09. Retrieved 2012-11-03.
  2. ^ Jones, Lon (4 March 1944). "WHICH CINEMA FILMS HAVE EARNED THE MOST MONEY SINCE 1914?". The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956). Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia. p. 3 Supplement: The Argus Weekend magazine. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  3. ^ a b c d The Tramp and the Dictator, official BBC web site
  4. ^ Waller, J. Michael (Lulu.com). Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War. Lulu.com. p. 101. ISBN 0-615-14463-2, 9780615144634. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Check date values in: |year= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ wikiquote:Charlie Chaplin#The Great Dictator (1940)
  6. ^ Eidenmuller, Michael E. "The Great Dictator" (1940)". American Rhetoric. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  7. ^ Trimborn, Jürgen (2007). Leni Riefenstahl: A Life. Macmillan. pp. 123–124. ISBN 0-374-18493-3, 9780374184933. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ R. Cole, "Anglo-American Anti-fascist Film Propaganda in a Time of Neutrality: The Great Dictator, 1940" in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 21 2 (2001): 137 - 152. Chaplin sat "for hours watching newsreels of the German dictator, exclaiming: ‘Oh, you bastard, you!"
  9. ^ King, Queen, Joker synopsis by Janiss Garza ; AllMovie.com
  10. ^ Review of the movie "The Tramp and the Dictator" by David Stratton, February 21, 2002, Variety
  11. ^ Kamin, Dan (2011). The Comedy of Charlie Chaplin: Artistry in Motion. Scarecrow Press. pp. 154–155. ISBN 0-8108-7780-5, 9780810877801. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Singer, Jessica (September 14, 2007). "THE GREAT DICTATOR". Brattle Theatre Film Notes.
  13. ^ Internationally co-produced by 4 production companies including BBC, Turner Classic Movies, and Germany's Spiegel TV
  14. ^ Charlie Chaplins Hitler-Parodie: Führer befiehl, wir lachen! Template:De icon
  15. ^ Trivia for The Great Dictator on IMDb
  16. ^ Irving Wallace, David Wallace, Amy Wallace, Sylvia Wallace (February 1980) "The Book of Lists 2", p. 200.
  17. ^ Hoffmann, Frank W. (1992). Mind & Society Fads. Haworth Press. ISBN 1-56024-178-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help), p. 116: "Between world wars, Esperanto fared worse and, sadly, became embroiled in political power moves. Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that the spread of Esperanto throughout Europe was a Jewish plot to break down national differences so that Jews could assume positions of authority.... After the Nazis' successful Blitzkrieg of Poland, the Warsaw Gestapo received orders to 'take care' of the Zamenhof family.... Zamenhof's son was shot... his two daughters were put in Treblinka death camp."
  18. ^ Truffaut, François (1994). The films in my life. Da Capo Press,. p. 358. ISBN 0-306-80599-5, 9780306805998. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  19. ^ "The Great Dictator:The Essentials". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
  20. ^ Roger Ebert (September 27, 2007). "The Great Dictator (1940) [review]". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
  21. ^ Stephen Weissman. "Chaplin:A Life (a self-published web book by a known print author)". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  22. ^ Mark Bourne. "The Great Dictator:The Chaplin Collection". DVD Journal. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
  23. ^ The Scarecrow Video Movie Guide. Sasquatch Books. 2004. p. 808. ISBN 1-57061-415-6, 9781-57061-415-6. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  24. ^ Insdorf, Annette (2003). Indelible shadows: film and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 410. ISBN 0-521-01630-4, 9780521016308. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  25. ^ Bernheimer, Kathryn (1998). The 50 greatest Jewish movies: a critic's ranking of the very best. Carol Publishing. p. 212. ISBN 1-55972-457-9, 9781-55972-457-9. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  26. ^ Schatz, Thomas (1999). Boom and bust: American cinema in the 1940s. University of California Press. p. 571. ISBN 0-520-22130-3, 9780520221307. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  27. ^ Shindler, Colin (1996). Hollywood in crisis: cinema and American society, 1929-1939. Psychology Press. p. 258. ISBN 0-415-10313-4, 9780415103138. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  28. ^ Telotte, J.P. (1999). A distant technology: science fiction film and the machine age. Wesleyan University Press. p. 218. ISBN 0-8195-6346-3, 9780819563460. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  29. ^ Flom, Eric (1997). Chaplin in the sound era: an analysis of the seven talkies. McFarland. p. 322. ISBN 0-7864-0325-X, 9780786403257. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  30. ^ Ryan Gilbey (2005). The Ultimate Film: The UK's 100 most popular films. London: BFI. p. 240.
  31. ^ a b Friedrich, Otto (1997 (reprint)). City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0520209494. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
  32. ^ Prince of Wales Theatre (2007). "Theatre Programme, Mama Mia!". London. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  33. ^ Okuda, Ted (2005). Charlie Chaplin at Keystone and Essanay: Dawn of the Tramp. iUniverse. p. 232. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  34. ^ Hitler in the movies
  35. ^ "Films Selected to The National Film Registry, 1989-2010". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
  36. ^ America's Funniest Movies. AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
  37. ^ "The Great Dictator". imdb. Retrieved 2007-04-06.
  38. ^ a b Meredith WIllson (1948). And There I Stood WIth My Piccolo. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc.
  39. ^ a b James L. Neibaur (2011). "The Great Dictator (Web Exclusive)". Cineaste,Vol.XXXVI No.4 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  40. ^ Discussion of Chaplin's film music by Bill Edwards
  41. ^ WagnerOpera.net
  42. ^ LA Times: Ten Films that Used Wagner's music
  43. ^ Peter Conrad. Modern Times, Modern Places How Life and Art Were Transformed in a Century of Revolution, Innovation, and Radical Change. Thames & Hudson. 1999. Page 427
  44. ^ Koepnick, Lutz Peter (2002). The dark mirror: German cinema between Hitler and Hollywood. University of California Press. p. 141. ISBN 0-520-23311-5, 9780520233119. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  45. ^ "Law Library - American Law and Legal Information". Retrieved 2007-06-11.
  46. ^ Chaplin, My Autobiography, 1964
  47. ^ "The Great Dictator". The Criterion Collection.
  • Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image. Charles J. Maland. Princeton, 1989.
  • National Film Theatre/British Film Institute notes on The Great Dictator.
  • The Tramp and the Dictator, directed by Kevin Brownlow, Michael Kloft 2002, 88 mn.