The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin's first sound film was 1940's The Great Dictator, which couldn't have been more timely. While the U.S. and Great Britain were still officially in appeasement with Nazi Germany, Chaplin went ahead and made a ruthless satire of Adolph Hitler (and Benito Mussolini) that portrayed the entire German government as a band of murderous baboons.

But watching this film the other night I came to a sad conclusion. Aside from a few indelible scenes, The Great Dictator is not a great film, mostly because the intended comic scenes fall flat. As I was speaking to my friend Bob, who is something of a Chaplin expert, we agreed that his last great film was Modern Times. He was still a great force in the world in the world, but had lost some of his comic touch.

Chaplin plays two roles. One is a Jewish barber, whom we meet when he is a soldier in the Great War, firing an immense gun (one gag I did love is that the Tomainians, stand-ins for the Germans, aim for the Notre Dame Cathedral and instead hit an outhouse). He rescues an airman, whom will later save his life, but develops amnesia and stays in a hospital for twenty years.

When he returns to his barbershop in the ghetto he is unaware of how things are, where storm troopers paint the word "Jew" on storefronts and the citizens tremble at their sight. He fights back, not realizing the danger, but his old friend the airman (Reginald Gardiner) makes sure he and his friends are kept safe. Chaplin has an eye on the young and feisty Hannah (Paulette Goddard, who was Chaplin's third wife).

Meanwhile, Chaplin also plays Adenoid Hynkle, an obvious caricature of Hitler (Chaplin was inspired by the Leni Reifenstahl film Triumph of the Will, which he laughed at), who is vain but insecure (every movie I see these days remind me of our current leader). He is advised by an unctuous Garbitsch (think Goebbels) played with sinister smoothness by Henry Daniell, and Herring (think Himmler) played with bluster by Billy Gilbert (who was an old hand in comedy, making many movies with Laurel and Hardy, notably The Music Box). Hynkle wants to take over the world, and in the film's most famous scene, dances a ballet while tossing about a globe like a beach balloon.

Later Hynkle will meet Napaloni, a stand-in for Mussolini, over-acted with Chico Marx brio by Jack Oakie (incredibly, he was nominated for an Oscar). They fight over who gets to invade Osterlich (Austria), but eventually Hynkle is mistaken for the Jewish barber and the barber for Hynkle, which leads to the film's second greatest scene, the speech that Chaplin makes calling for freedom and brotherhood. Today, the speech may seem like a "Kumbaya" moment, but back in 1940, when Germany had already invaded Poland, it was edgy stuff:

"I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. ….. Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!"

That Chaplin chose to equate white men with black in 1940 was audacious.

But the film lags in between these scenes. There are some slapstick scenes, such as when Chaplin and Oakie get into a food fight, or when Oakie's train can't settle on a stopping point. Most of these scenes go on to long and don't have the timing and pep of Chaplin's previous work. Chaplin's later work would work away from slapstick, as there seems to come a time in every great comedian's career that physical humor from an older man just doesn't seem funny any more. Chaplin was only fifty, but the days of the Little Tramp were over.

The film is far more interesting as a social commentary of its time period. Chaplin and Hitler were born only four days apart, and Chaplin seemed to wonder aloud how the vagaries of history, which saw them both grow up in poverty and reach incredible fame--in 1940, they may have been the two most famous people in the world--put each in their respective slots. It is conjectured that Hitler actually saw the film, twice, and Chaplin would have loved to know what he thought of it.

The Great Dictator, despite being banned in many places (Vichy France and Germany, of course) was the second-highest grossing film of 1940, but soon after he was accused of communist sympathy, and his dabbling with underage girls finally caught up with him. He would make a few more films, his next was Monsieur Verdoux.