IMDb > The Great Dictator (1940)
The Great Dictator
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The Great Dictator (1940) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 4% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
Charles Chaplin (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Great Dictator on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
7 March 1941 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
The Comedy Masterpiece! more
Plot:
In Chaplin's satire on Nazi Germany, dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a double... a poor Jewish barber... who one day is mistaken for Hynkel. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
(11 articles)
Tiff 2009 Day 7: Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs
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User Reviews:
Chaplin's comment on fascism is his first talking film... more (125 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Charles Chaplin ... Hynkel - Dictator of Tomania / A Jewish Barber
Jack Oakie ... Napaloni - Dictator of Bacteria
Reginald Gardiner ... Schultz
Henry Daniell ... Garbitsch
Billy Gilbert ... Herring
Grace Hayle ... Madame Napaloni
Carter DeHaven ... Bacterian Ambassador (as Carter De Haven)

Paulette Goddard ... Hannah
Maurice Moscovitch ... Mr. Jaeckel (as Maurice Moscovich)
Emma Dunn ... Mrs. Jaeckel
Bernard Gorcey ... Mr. Mann
Paul Weigel ... Mr. Agar
Chester Conklin ... Barber's Customer
Esther Michelson ... Jewish Woman
Hank Mann ... Storm Trooper Stealing Fruit
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The Dictator (USA) (working title)
more
Runtime:
125 min
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Certification:
Brazil:Livre | Germany:6 (DVD rating) | South Korea:All | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Spain:18 (re-rating) (1976) | UK:U (original rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG | Chile:TE | Denmark:7 (2003) | Finland:K-12 | Finland:S (re-release) | France:U | Germany:(Banned) (original rating) | Ireland:(Banned) (original rating) | Ireland:PG (re-rating) | Norway:7 | Spain:(Banned) (1940-1976) | Spain:T (re-rating) | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG (re-rating) (2003) | USA:Approved (PCA #6611) (original rating) | USA:G (re-rating) (1972) | West Germany:12 (original rating)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
This is the first Charles Chaplin film since Behind the Screen (1916) in which Chaplin plays a character who is actually identified by name. His famous Tramp character was rarely given a name, though he was often referred to as Charlie. The tramp-like barber in this film remains unnamed, but the Dictator is clearly referred to by name. more
Goofs:
Crew or equipment visible: When the Jewish Barber first finds his shop full of webs, you can see the shadow of the camera on his left shoulder. more
Quotes:
Garbitsch: "Corona veniat electus." Victory shall come to the worthy. Today, democracy, liberty, and equality are words to fool the people. No nation can progress with such ideas. They stand in the way of action. Therefore, we frankly abolish them. In the future...
[...]
more
Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
Prelude to 'Lohengrin' more

FAQ

Did Hitler ever see this movie?
Did Chaplin make this movie as a spoof on the Holocaust?
A Note Regarding Spoilers
more
38 out of 45 people found the following review useful.
Chaplin's comment on fascism is his first talking film..., 14 September 2000
8/10

Hynkel, dictator of Tomania, is a spoiled child who becomes angry when he cannot gets what he really wants... And what he simply wants is nothing less than the world...

In one of the extraordinary scenes of Chaplin art, Hynkel performs a ballet with the 'world' which bursts when he thinks he has it in his grasp...

Chaplin also has some biting words on war and war films... In a scene at the beginning of the movie, which takes place during World War I, the Tomanian messenger crashes the plane and thinks... He is about to die... In a state of delirium, he begins to say ridiculous words... The empty double-talk continue ascending into a brilliant take off on all the heroic death scenes of War films...

In another scene when he becomes a fugitive in the Jewish ghetto and assumes command of the resistance fomenting rebellion among the old men, he plans to kill the dictator... One of the group must kill the ruthless conqueror of Austerlich... Whoever is chosen will naturally die, but his heroic death will be rewarded and his name will shine like a star in Tomanian history...

The sequence in which he and four other characters eat cream cakes containing coins to determine which shall sacrifice his life to murder the dictator is a bitter hilarity filled with great fear...

For all its disappointing shortcomings, "The Great Dictator" is still a significant movie for the ironic tones of the film adding something that neither Chaplin nor anymore else could have given it: the irony of history... The necessity to murder Hynkel presages the assassination attempt against Hitler by his generals... The force of the original satire is only surpassed by history's imitation of art...

With a splendid sequence like the duck-shooting accident which leads to the dictator being mistaken for the humbly Jewish barber and vice versa, "The Great Dictator" is Chaplin's first talking movie... This time 'Charles' and not 'Charlie,' wanting to say more through his movie and not through an amusing comedy, the last in which he uses his celebrated 'Tramp Character.'

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Message Boards

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question about the end of the Globe scene McHinch
Chaplin's worst? alexbrownson
charlie chaplin's speech at the end neongod64
What do you think happened to the Barber and Schultz? zjm
Napaloni's wife? WillBarks
A bit of irony... jogerston
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