Charlie Chaplin Mocks Hitler in ‘The Great Dictator’
Charlie Chaplin rose to international stardom in the silent film era, during which he became one of the world’s most readily recognized figures. Even after the silent film era wound down, and the sound film period began with the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, he continued making silent films. For the remainder of the 1920s, and all throughout the 1930s, Chaplin avoided making “talkies”, and stuck with what he knew best.
In the meantime, during the 1930s, the Nazis had published a propaganda book, The Jews Are Watching You, in which Chaplin was listed among dozens of activists, journalists, academics, bankers, and performers marked for death. Rather than intimidate Chaplin, it inspired him to go after Hitler by directing and starring in a movie depicting the Fuhrer as a buffoon.
Thus, in 1940, more than a decade after sound films had become the norm, Chaplin finally opened his mouth and spoke on the silver screen in order to stick it to Hitler in The Great Dictator. He hit it out of the park with his first talkie. In a long career full of blockbusters, The Great Dictator became Chaplin’s most commercially successful film. It is considered by many critics to be the British comedian’s greatest movie ever, as well as one of the best films of all time.
Chaplin played the dictator Adenoid Hynkel, who is clearly modeled on Adolph Hitler, and the Fuhrer and his Third Reich were mercilessly mocked in the satirical movie. Audiences roared with laughter at scenes of Nazi-like rallies, in which Chaplin rants in German-sounding gibberish. Other scenes depicted farcical interactions between the film’s stand-ins for fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini. Yet another classic scene mocks the Fuhrers ambition to rule the world, as Chaplin depicted the German dictator playing in his office with an inflated globe.
That satire was bitingly effective and powerful, because Chaplin drew on the strong physical resemblance between himself and Hitler, particularly their distinctive and silly toothbrush moustaches. The Great Dictator went on to get nominated for five Academy Awards, for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Writing, Best Music, and Outstanding Production.