Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

Director:

Charles Chaplin

Writers:

Orson Welles (idea) and
Charles Chaplin (writer)

Release Date:

8 December 1947 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Chaplin's Bluebeard comedy is a killer!

Plot:

A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.

Plot Keywords:

Cemetery | Telephone | Polygamy | Directed By Star | Psychopath

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins

Cast

Charles Chaplin	...	Henri Verdoux
Mady Correll	...	Mona Verdoux
Allison Roddan	...	Peter Verdoux
Robert Lewis	...	Maurice Bottello
Audrey Betz	...	Martha Bottello
Martha Raye	...	Annabella Bonheur
Ada May	...	Annette, Annabella's maid (as Ada-May)
Isobel Elsom	...	Marie Grosnay
Marjorie Bennett	...	Marie's Maid
Helene Heigh	...	Yvonne La Salle, Marie's friend
Margaret Hoffman	...	Lydia Floray
Marilyn Nash	...	The Girl
Irving Bacon	...	Pierre Couvais
Edwin Mills	...	Jean Couvais
Virginia Brissac	...	Carlotta Couvais

Also Known As:

A Comedy of Murders (USA) (working title)
The Ladykiller (USA) (original script title)

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Denmark:7 (2003) | Finland:K-11 (re-rating) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | UK:A (1947) (cut) | UK:PG (1986)

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, California, USA

Company:

Charles Chaplin Productions

Trivia:

Verdoux's quote "One murder makes a villain; millions a hero" is taken from the abolitionist Bishop Beilby Porteus (1731-1808).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Although the story takes place in the years 1932-1937, all the women's fashions and hairstyles are strictly in the 1946-1947 mode, when the film was made.

Quotes:

Henri Verdoux: Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chaplin Today: A Woman of Paris (2003) (TV)

"Presents incongruities to an agreeable monster..."

Considered in some circles as Chaplin's crowning performance. It's a clever and earnest study of a man, a survivalist in a world gone the way of a corporate jungle. It also becomes incredibly relevant now in its take on the ruthlessness of capitalism and harshness of being part of a civilised society. Take allegory on its face value, Chaplin's Henri Verdoux is a bluebeard, who marries middle-aged women for their money and disposes of them through incinerators or "liquidates them" as he prefers to call it. His actions are driven by a need to care for a young child and an invalid wife who look up to him, as he keeps from them his retrenchment from his post as a bank clerk. He sees no difference in murder as he does in business. There's an inconsolable sadness throughout the film. Despite the gags, and wit teeming within its situations and characters, all roads lead to despair. The cold reach of its cynicism is daunting as it is bleak.

The film presents incongruities to the calculatingly agreeable monster by showing an aging man whose waning pride demands attention, and a hopeless romantic who surmises that he's a singular creature in a cold, inhuman world. The film then shows how arctic and precise he is when it comes to murder, how meticulous he is when he plans and how efficient he is when it comes to counting francs - cue the sight gag.

His articulation is almost borne out of being made to play different roles, the confidence he exudes to charm these women into marriage are just facets of Verdoux's intelligence. Above all, he assumes he knows how these women think and what they truly are. His misogynistic tendencies towards women who are self-sufficient is in clear contrast to his wife, who he adores and the ingénue in the street he picks up halfway through the film who restores his faith in humanity when she turns out to be an optimistic but kindred spirit.

With the film's final minutes, Chaplin indicts big business within the film's context of being in the Great Depression. He uses this opportunity to verve into anti-war criticism, a keenly placed insight being released just a few years after the end of the second World War. Insisting he's nothing but an amateur compared to the murderers behind war and business machinations, he uses the furious revolutions of the wheels of a train to show like in like many of his silents, that he's nothing but a cog - always turning to the tune of the corporations.