The Great Dictator (1940)

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

Director:

Charles Chaplin

Writer:

Charles Chaplin

Stars:

Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie

Top Rated Movies #53 | Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 1 nomination.

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

Storyline

20 years after the end of WWI, in which the nation of Tomainia was on the losing side, Adenoid Hynkel has risen to power as the ruthless dictator of the country. He believes in a pure Aryan state and the decimation of the Jews. This situation is unknown to a simple Jewish Tomainian barber who has been hospitalized since a WWI battle. Upon his release the barber, who had been suffering from memory loss about the war, is shown the new persecuted life of the Jews by many living in the Jewish ghetto, including a washerwoman named Hannah with whom he begins a relationship. The barber is ultimately spared such persecution by Commander Schultz, whom he saved in that WWI battle. The lives of all Jews in Tomainia are eventually spared with a policy shift by Hynkel himself, who is doing so for ulterior motives. But those motives include a desire for world domination, starting with the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, which may be threatened by Benzino Napaloni, the dictator of neighboring ...

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick comedy | barber | dictator | chase | invented language | 

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Taglines:

The Comedy Masterpiece!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | War

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Esperanto

Release Date:

7 March 1941 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Dictator

Filming Locations:

Agoura Hills, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$5,000,000, 31 December 1940

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,000,000, 31 December 1940

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charles Chaplin Productions,One Production Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to his biographer, David Robinson, Charles Chaplin despised script girls and refused to abide by their guidance, resulting in continuity lapses in this movie.

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Goofs

(at around 29 mins) When the Jewish Barber first finds his shop full of webs, you can see the shadow of the camera on his left shoulder.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Title Cards: Note, any resemblance between Hynkle the Dictator and the Jewish Barber is purely co-incidental.
Title Cards: This is a story of a period between two World Wars - an interim in which Insanity cut loose. Liberty took a nose dive, and Humanity was kicked around somewhat.

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Crazy Credits

The film is obviously a satire on Adolf Hitler, represented by Adenoid Hynkel, and its story is based on Hynkel looking exactly like "a Jewish barber": both are played by Charles Chaplin. But it begins with a notice: "Any resemblance between Hynkel the dictator and the Jewish barber is purely co-incidental".

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Connections

Referenced in Charlie Chaplin - Les années suisses (2003)

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Soundtracks

String Quintet in E, Op. 13 No. 5: Minuet
(uncredited)
Music by Luigi Boccherini
Played on piano a bit by Charles Chaplin

User Reviews

The "Pre-Mature" Anti-Fascist

Released in 1940, "The Great Dictator" was the first Hollywood film that denounced Hitler directly (albeit in the guise of Adenoid Hynkel), took a virulent stand against fascism, and directly addressed Anti-Semitism.

Over-long, at times heavy-handed, it still has many wonderful sequences, including the famous dance with the globe, and all the scenes of Chaplin with Jack Oakie, each trying to out-do the other and prove his superiority.

One criticism that seems to occasionally rear its head is the implication that Chaplin's pre-World War II anti-fascism was somehow wrong-headed. The atrocities of the Holocaust weren't fully known to the world yet, so Chaplin's anti-Hitler diatribe is, in the minds of some, misguided. After the war this mindset would result in the debacle of the blacklist, when Chaplin, among others, were branded "pre-mature anti-fascists." In other words, it wasn't politically acceptable to be against Nazism until war broke out with the U.S. Hard to believe anyone could still see things that way now, but some do.

The film industry of the 1930s wanted no part of international politics, no matter how blatant the brutality of a given regime. Profits were at stake. It was little goyisha Charley Chaplin, playing a Jewish barber, who took a public stand.

While "The Great Dictator" may not among Chaplin's finest films, it may, historically, be his finest hour.