Film studio owner producer Alexander Korda, a friend of Charlie Chaplin, told the comedian director he looked just like German leader Adolf Hitler. The comment planted a seed in Chaplin's head, inspiring him to create a satirical attack on the German chancellor, resulting in the classic October 1940 "The Great Dictator," his biggest box office hit ever while it was an Academy Awards Best Picture nominee.
Korda said it was a coincidence Chaplin and Hitler were born within a week of each other, they both rose up from poverty, they had the same physical build, and they both sported the distinctive toothbrush mustache. The son of Charlie Chaplin's wrote about the comparison between the two. "Their destinies were poles apart," Charlie Chaplin Jr. Said. "One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. 'Just think,' he would say uneasily, 'he's the madman, I'm the comic. But it could have been the other way around.'" After viewing Leni Risfenstahl's 1935's "Triumph of the Will," a propaganda film on the Nazis' gathering in Nuremberg, Germany, Chaplin found comic possibilities in mimicking Hitler's gestures on the screen. Chaplin spent hours studying the Fuhrer's speaking style, which came in handy since "The Great Dictator" was Chaplin's first movie with sound dialogue.
Chaplain wrapped his studio set around a shroud of total secrecy while filming "The Great Dictator," making sure word didn't get out on his poking fun at the German leader. George Gyssling, the German consul who made a habit of threatening Hollywood studios to not criticize the Nazi government and its leaders, heard what Chaplin was doing. He wrote a letter to the head of the Hay's Office Joseph Breen protesting the "burlesque' of Hitler by Chaplin. The timing of Gyssling's threat was perfect for Chaplin's pet project since it arrived on Breen's desk a week after Germany invaded Poland, setting off World War Two. What was discouraged by the censors a week before was now permissible, allowing Chaplin to mock the Nazi leader.
Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "In 1940, this would have played as very highly charged, because Chaplin was launching his comic persona against Hitler in an attempt, largely successful, to ridicule him as a clown." "The Great Dictator" contains two plots, both converging at the end. One featured the head of a fictitious European country Tomainia, whose leader Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplain) rules with an iron-clad hand comically seeking world domination, symbolically portrayed in the famous sequence of the dictator bouncing a gigantic global balloon in his office. The other storyline focuses on a Jewish barber (Chaplain), an injured World War One German veteran suffering amnesia for twenty years. Returning to his shop, he's confronted by storm troopers painting the word "Jew" on his shop's windows. He and his next door neighbor, Hannah (Paulette Goddard), are able to temporarily fend off the SS assaults. The Barber wears The Tramp's signature mustache and bowler hat, which film historians say was Chaplin's final appearance as his famous character. "The Great Dictator's" two arcs converge, leading to what critics say is one of the greatest monologues in film, spoken by the assumed Tomainian leader.
The perfectionist Chaplin took an inordinate 539 days to film "The Great Dictator." He claimed when he wore the Nazi-type uniform it made him feel more aggressive. Those working close to Chaplin say he was more difficult to deal with when he was dressed as Hynkel. In addition, his relationship with Paulette Goddard was strained while directing his blockbuster; he was jealous she was receiving a number of lead offers for several big-budgeted movies. Goddard was unhappy with her small role in the film as well as the shoddy clothes and unkept hair style she was forced to wear. One nasty fight erupted when Chaplin harped on the way she was scrubbing the floor, claiming she didn't have "the proper swing of the brush." Goddard walked off after he demanded she clean the entire studio floor until she got the technique correct.
Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" wasn't Hollywood's first satirical look at Hitler. The Three Stooges beat him by several months in January 1940's release of "You Nazty Spy." Germany and its allies banned the Chaplin film, but according to Hitler's girlfriend Eva Braun, Hitler did view Chaplin's movie twice and enjoyed the globe dance sequence. Hitler even remodeled his office to resemble the one in the film. Chaplin heard of the chancellor's viewing and declared, "I'd give anything to know what he thought of it." One theatre in Nazi-occupied Balkans packed with German soldiers contained resistance fighters switching reels in the middle of the movie it was playing to the "The Great Dictator." The stern soldiers began laughing at Chaplin's antics until they realized what was happening. While a few left others, angered by its content, shot their guns at the screen. When England's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain first heard about Chaplin's filming the Hitler satire in the summer of 1939, he declared the movie was against his appeasement policy, and would ban it from playing. When war was declared, the picture was allowed to be shown in the United Kingdom, to great popular demand.
When he heard about the horrors of the Holocaust, Chaplin expressed regrets about making "The Great Dictator," claiming if he ever knew the full extent of the Nazi's brutalization, he would have never made the movie. Controlling all rights to the film, he withdrew it from circulation in the middle of World War Two knowing its humor would be tough to amuse a war-weary audience. The film was shown in Rome in late 1944 shortly after Benito Mussolini high-tailed out the country, liberating Italy. Actor Jack Oakie's parody of the Italian dictator as the bumbling Benzino Napaloni had the Italians sitting in stunned silence after they previously laughed at the Hynkel scenes. Oakie later said he "had made hundreds of pictures, but they only remember me as Napaloni." When the movie reappeared in 1961, the Italians flocked to the theaters lapping up every minute of it. In Spain, "The Great Dictator" was withheld until 1975 when its dictator, General Francisco Franco, died.
Film reviewer James Kendrick remarked Chaplin "is certainly his bravest, if not one of the bravest films ever made. It was a lone cinematic cry for humanity to stand together against the ominous dark clouds of fascism that were rapidly spreading across Europe." The Academy Awards nominated the film for five categories, including Best Picture (Chaplin's only Best Pic nominee), Best Actor (Chaplin's only nominated performance), Best Supporting Actor (Oakie), Best Original Screenplay (Chaplin), and Best Original Musical Score (Meredith Wilson), but didn't take home one Oscar. Chaplin is the only actor to refuse to accept the New York Film Critics award for Best Actor. The American Film Institute ranks his picture the 37th Funniest Movie of All Time.
Korda said it was a coincidence Chaplin and Hitler were born within a week of each other, they both rose up from poverty, they had the same physical build, and they both sported the distinctive toothbrush mustache. The son of Charlie Chaplin's wrote about the comparison between the two. "Their destinies were poles apart," Charlie Chaplin Jr. Said. "One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. 'Just think,' he would say uneasily, 'he's the madman, I'm the comic. But it could have been the other way around.'" After viewing Leni Risfenstahl's 1935's "Triumph of the Will," a propaganda film on the Nazis' gathering in Nuremberg, Germany, Chaplin found comic possibilities in mimicking Hitler's gestures on the screen. Chaplin spent hours studying the Fuhrer's speaking style, which came in handy since "The Great Dictator" was Chaplin's first movie with sound dialogue.
Chaplain wrapped his studio set around a shroud of total secrecy while filming "The Great Dictator," making sure word didn't get out on his poking fun at the German leader. George Gyssling, the German consul who made a habit of threatening Hollywood studios to not criticize the Nazi government and its leaders, heard what Chaplin was doing. He wrote a letter to the head of the Hay's Office Joseph Breen protesting the "burlesque' of Hitler by Chaplin. The timing of Gyssling's threat was perfect for Chaplin's pet project since it arrived on Breen's desk a week after Germany invaded Poland, setting off World War Two. What was discouraged by the censors a week before was now permissible, allowing Chaplin to mock the Nazi leader.
Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "In 1940, this would have played as very highly charged, because Chaplin was launching his comic persona against Hitler in an attempt, largely successful, to ridicule him as a clown." "The Great Dictator" contains two plots, both converging at the end. One featured the head of a fictitious European country Tomainia, whose leader Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplain) rules with an iron-clad hand comically seeking world domination, symbolically portrayed in the famous sequence of the dictator bouncing a gigantic global balloon in his office. The other storyline focuses on a Jewish barber (Chaplain), an injured World War One German veteran suffering amnesia for twenty years. Returning to his shop, he's confronted by storm troopers painting the word "Jew" on his shop's windows. He and his next door neighbor, Hannah (Paulette Goddard), are able to temporarily fend off the SS assaults. The Barber wears The Tramp's signature mustache and bowler hat, which film historians say was Chaplin's final appearance as his famous character. "The Great Dictator's" two arcs converge, leading to what critics say is one of the greatest monologues in film, spoken by the assumed Tomainian leader.
The perfectionist Chaplin took an inordinate 539 days to film "The Great Dictator." He claimed when he wore the Nazi-type uniform it made him feel more aggressive. Those working close to Chaplin say he was more difficult to deal with when he was dressed as Hynkel. In addition, his relationship with Paulette Goddard was strained while directing his blockbuster; he was jealous she was receiving a number of lead offers for several big-budgeted movies. Goddard was unhappy with her small role in the film as well as the shoddy clothes and unkept hair style she was forced to wear. One nasty fight erupted when Chaplin harped on the way she was scrubbing the floor, claiming she didn't have "the proper swing of the brush." Goddard walked off after he demanded she clean the entire studio floor until she got the technique correct.
Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" wasn't Hollywood's first satirical look at Hitler. The Three Stooges beat him by several months in January 1940's release of "You Nazty Spy." Germany and its allies banned the Chaplin film, but according to Hitler's girlfriend Eva Braun, Hitler did view Chaplin's movie twice and enjoyed the globe dance sequence. Hitler even remodeled his office to resemble the one in the film. Chaplin heard of the chancellor's viewing and declared, "I'd give anything to know what he thought of it." One theatre in Nazi-occupied Balkans packed with German soldiers contained resistance fighters switching reels in the middle of the movie it was playing to the "The Great Dictator." The stern soldiers began laughing at Chaplin's antics until they realized what was happening. While a few left others, angered by its content, shot their guns at the screen. When England's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain first heard about Chaplin's filming the Hitler satire in the summer of 1939, he declared the movie was against his appeasement policy, and would ban it from playing. When war was declared, the picture was allowed to be shown in the United Kingdom, to great popular demand.
When he heard about the horrors of the Holocaust, Chaplin expressed regrets about making "The Great Dictator," claiming if he ever knew the full extent of the Nazi's brutalization, he would have never made the movie. Controlling all rights to the film, he withdrew it from circulation in the middle of World War Two knowing its humor would be tough to amuse a war-weary audience. The film was shown in Rome in late 1944 shortly after Benito Mussolini high-tailed out the country, liberating Italy. Actor Jack Oakie's parody of the Italian dictator as the bumbling Benzino Napaloni had the Italians sitting in stunned silence after they previously laughed at the Hynkel scenes. Oakie later said he "had made hundreds of pictures, but they only remember me as Napaloni." When the movie reappeared in 1961, the Italians flocked to the theaters lapping up every minute of it. In Spain, "The Great Dictator" was withheld until 1975 when its dictator, General Francisco Franco, died.
Film reviewer James Kendrick remarked Chaplin "is certainly his bravest, if not one of the bravest films ever made. It was a lone cinematic cry for humanity to stand together against the ominous dark clouds of fascism that were rapidly spreading across Europe." The Academy Awards nominated the film for five categories, including Best Picture (Chaplin's only Best Pic nominee), Best Actor (Chaplin's only nominated performance), Best Supporting Actor (Oakie), Best Original Screenplay (Chaplin), and Best Original Musical Score (Meredith Wilson), but didn't take home one Oscar. Chaplin is the only actor to refuse to accept the New York Film Critics award for Best Actor. The American Film Institute ranks his picture the 37th Funniest Movie of All Time.
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