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:

Marriage | Yodeling | Murder | Directed By Star | Widow

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:

Chaplin bought the idea for the film off Orson Welles for $5,000. Welles had been contemplating making a dramatized documentary of the real story of French serial killer, Henri Landru.

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: I have made my peace with God, my conflict is with man.

Movie Connections:

Version of Landru (1963)

A sublime, eloquent Charlie in his finest sound-era vehicle.

The word "Bluebeard" ("Landru" in French) has been a part of the American vernacular for some time now, synonymous with the term "wife-killer." Several variations of the infamous Parisian charmer who married then buried have been filmed over the decades - some OK, others not. John Carradine starred in a respectable but unheralded version in the mid-30s as a puppeteer-turned-perpetual strangler. A so-so French/Italian co-production in 1962 starring Charles Denner and Michele Morgan strove for dark comedy but ultimately lacked the creative spark. The worst of the lot was a wretched Richard Burton/Raquel Welch/Joey Heatherton rehash in the 70s, the nadir of Burton's screen career.

It seems most fitting then that the wry, comic genius of Charlie Chaplin, our beloved "Little Tramp," is allowed to put its delightfully macabre spin on the Bluebeard tale with 1947's "Monsieur Verdoux," winding up with perhaps the most entertaining version yet. First and foremost, it is a pleasure to hear Charlie talk. I also venture to say this is the best of his sound-era films, well-mounted and shot meticulously in black and white, in which he not only produced and directed but provided the music. Who but the loveable Chaplin, with that ever-present tinge of pathos, could play the role of a methodical, unrepentant human wife-disposal who kills purely for financial reward, and have the audience rooting for him!

Our titular hero is a charming fop of a fellow who operates his deadly deception by a precise timetable - he fastidiously charms, marries and eliminates his unsuspecting victims with keen attention paid to banker's hours! But it's Monsieur Verdoux's motive that gains the viewer's empathy. Our boy is not the mad, demented, twisted, cold-hearted monster one must think. He carries out his dastardly deeds out of selfless need. His out-of-town "business" is conducted solely in order to support and tend to his wheelchair-bound wife, a hopeless cripple and invalid, and family. His devotion, in fact, is so honorable, he succeeds in wrapping you around his little wedding finger. As much as you sympathize for the dowagers he does in, you can't help but think at least the old dears died having been graced by such a noble gentleman.

Brash loudster Martha Raye, often considered a bust in films for being intolerably larger-than-life, has one of her best roles here, grabbing her share of laughs as one of Verdoux's intended victims - a shrill, obnoxious, but verrrry wealthy dame whom nobody would really mind seeing knocked off. The problem is Charlie can't seem to off her! Every industrious attempt fails miserably. In one truly madcap scene that directly parodies Theodore Dreiser's classic novel "An American Tragedy," Charlie takes Martha, outlandishly bedecked in silver fox furs, out on a crude fishing boat excursion in the hopes of drowning the tenacious harridan. Two comic masters in vintage form.

Of course, Charlie does get his comeuppance but its all done in grand, sophisticated style. The whole movie is, in fact, so precise and polished that one must forgive him, given his controversial "subversive" leanings at the time, for tacking on an interminable, out-of-character piece of political diatribe at the finishing line. The movie's theme and bitter irony did not even pretend to disguise his great personal anguish and bitterness at America when political conservatives were breathing down his neck. Forgiven he is, for this black comedy, a sublime, eloquent retread of an old familiar creeper, comes off refreshingly original.