Fun with Fascist Dictators
Released when the U.S. was still at peace with Germany and neutral in the early days of WWII, The Great Dictator is an early blast of anti-Hitler sentiment from the great Chaplin.
Set in the fictional country of Tomainia, the film tells the story a Jewish barber (Chaplin, either playing a variation of his famous Tramp character… or not, your choice) whose fate becomes entwined with fascist dictator Adenoid Hynkel (also Chaplin). When Hynkel orders a purge of the Jews, the barber and his love, Hannah (Paulette Godard), must make tough choices. Meanwhile, Hynkel plans an invasion with his buffoonish ally, Benzino Napoloni of Bacteria.
Heavy stuff for a comedy in 1940, but the movie was a big hit, Chaplin’s biggest-ever, in fact. It was nominated for five Oscars, while being banned in Germany and Italy and every Axis-occupied country—Mussolini, in particular, did not care for his caricature. It ranks 37th on the American Film Institute’s funniest films ever, one of four Chaplin movies in Top 50.
The Great Dictator features two of Chaplin’s (i.e. cinema’s) most memorable moments: the breathtaking globe-balloon dance with Hynkel playfully holding the world in his hands; and the impassioned final speech, showcasing Chaplin in full anti-fascist flower.
The British-born Chaplin had been prepping the movie for two years, well before the war even started, during the UK’s ill-advised “Appeasement” phase with Hitler’s Germany. The U.S., of course, would not enter the war until the year after The Great Dictator was released. Chaplin said that he encountered some static from the powers that be when they heard of his plans.
“I began receiving alarming messages from United Artists,” he wrote in his autobiography. “The English office was very concerned about an anti-Hitler picture and doubted whether it could be shown in Britain. More worrying letters came from the New York office imploring me not to make the film, declaring it would never be shown in England or America.”