This was the first time I had ever seen The Great Dictator, and I didn't know a whole lot about it going in. I knew it was about WWII, and that was about it. From Paramount film programmer Jesse Trussell's film notes, I learned that it was Hollywood's second comic portrayal of Hitler (following The Three Stooges' short You Nazty Spy earlier that year) and that Chaplin drew some inspiration for the film from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film, Triumph of the Will. Some scenes in The Great Dictator are direct parodies of scenes from Triumph of the Will. Chaplin began filming The Great Dictator in 1939, shortly after the start of WWII, after hearing about Hitler's actions from his European Jewish friends. So there's some context. Thanks, Jesse.
The film opens with a battle scene in which a young soldier (Chaplin) saves the life of a military pilot named Schultz (Reginald Gardiner). Chaplin has the crowd laughing right out of the gate, with gags featuring a faulty cannon and an upside down flight. The soldier is injured in the process and spends a great deal of time in the hospital after the war. When he returns home to his Jewish neighborhood in Tomania, his memory of the war lost due to his injury, he discovers that the Jewish community in Tomania is suffering from persecution by the Tomanian dictator, Hynkel (also played by Chaplin). The young soldier experiences the persecution firsthand when he tries to reopen the barber shop he left behind when he went to war. Hynkel's followers have painted "Jew" on the windows of all businesses owned by Jewish people. Confused, Chaplin's character begins to wash his off. Hilarity ensues when Hynkel's soldiers catch him and try to repaint the window. Soon after this, the Jewish community bands together to fight the persecution. During their fight, Chaplin's character becomes close with Hannah (Paulette Goddard), a spirited young woman who came to his aid when Hynkel's soldiers attempted to arrest him for washing his window. Schultz, remembering the young soldier who once saved his life, also eventually joins their cause, turning his back on Hynkel and his oppressive policies.
On the other side of the story is Dictator Hynkel. As you probably guessed, Hynkel is a parody of Hitler, and Chaplin portrays his as a childish ruler who speaks in gibberish a lot of the time. When Hynkel learns that Schultz has joined forces with the Jews, he has him arrested. He also sends soldiers to capture all the Jews and put them in concentration camps. Schultz and the Barber manage to escape. Hynkel doesn't seem to notice because he is busy planning an attack on a neighboring country. The young Barber is mistaken for Hynkel and brought up to speak before a crowd of Hynkel's followers and all the citizens of Tomania, who are eagerly listening on the radio. The listeners include Hannah and her family, who were forced to flee when Hynkel's soldiers came after all the Jewish people.
The ending speech is moving. At the time, it served to remind audiences of the grave circumstances going on around them. World War II was raging. Hundreds of thousands of people died. Unbelievable atrocities against humanity were being committed. It probably felt as though the world was going to hell in a hand basket. This was meant to call attention to those things, and to inspire people to stand against them. And it remains relevant even now, 72 years later.
This film is fantastic. It's funny. It's inspiring. It's fascinating to watch Charlie Chaplin play two extremely different characters.
Next, we moved on to Modern Times.
This is probably my favorite Chaplin movie. Even though it is part of the sound era, it has no dialogue. Chaplin intended it to be his first talkie, but experiments showed that audiences would not react well to hearing The Tramp speak. This was The Tramp's last appearance. Chaplin used this film to critique American life during the Great Depression, specifically poor (and sometimes downright inhumane) working conditions. Again, thanks to Jesse Trussell for the context.
In this one, The Tramp is a factory worker who is fired from his job following a nervous breakdown caused by the working conditions in the factory. He gets treatment for his breakdown and sets off to return to work when he accidentally ends up at the front of a Communist demonstration march. He is arrested and sent to jail. During his misadventures, he meets the Gamin (Paulette Goddard), an orphan girl living on the streets near the town port. She has stolen a loaf of bread, and the police are chasing her. He helps her escape arrest, but ends up in jail. They quickly fall in love, and after his release from jail, she sets about finding them a house and he goes in search of a job. He eventually goes back to work at the factory he worked at when the film began, and she finds a job as a performer in a night club. After another series of mishaps, The Tramp is fired from the factory, and the Gamin helps him get a job as a waiter in the night club where she works. As it turns out, he is a terrible waiter, but a good singer, so their boss tells him to perform instead. The police, who have been pursuing the Gamin since she escaped arrest, track them down at the night club and come after her. The Tramp and the Gamin flee, and set off in search of a new home in a new town.
This film contains some of my favorite Chaplin gags, including the trapped-in-the-gears bit. I never cease to be impressed by what they were able to accomplish without the special effects technology that is available now. The upside down flight in the Great Dictator is a great one too. Modern Times is also interesting in that it's a sound film without dialogue. It does use sound effects though. Machinated voices are heard barking orders in the factory where The Tramp works, and there is a very Big Brother-ish scene in which the boss' face appears on a screen in the men's room telling the workers taking their time in there to get back to work. The sound effects are mostly used to help make the point about the harshness of working conditions at the time.
This is a great pair of films, and I'm glad I got the chance to see them on the big screen. If you haven't seen them, I recommend that you do so. They are both available for streaming on Hulu Plus.
Up next: A double helping of Jimmy Stewart featuring Harvey and Anatomy of a Murder.
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