Category: Comedy
All Genres: Comedy, Drama, War
Release Year: 1940
Country: USA
Runtime: 124
Rating: 7.3 (0)
Languages: English, Esperanto
Director: Charles Chaplin
Sound: Mono
Taglines:

The Comedy Masterpiece!

Chaplin talks . . while You Laugh ! His greatest comedy since "Shoulder Arms" and "the Gold Rush" !

Once again - the whole world laughs!

Writing by: Charles Chaplin - writer

Produced by: Charles Chaplin - producer
Carter DeHaven - associate producer (uncredited)

Cast: Charles Chaplin - Adenoid Hynkel (Dictator of Tomania) / A Jewish Barber
Paulette Goddard - Hannah
Jack Oakie - Benzini Napaloni (Dictator of Bacteria)
Reginald Gardiner - Commander Schultz
Henry Daniell - Garbitsch
Billy Gilbert - Field Marshal Herring
Grace Hayle - Madame Napaloni
Carter DeHaven - Spook (Bacterian ambassador) (as Carter De Haven)
Maurice Moscovitch - Mr. Jaeckel
Emma Dunn - Mrs. Jaeckel
Bernard Gorcey - Mr. Mann

Music: Meredith Willson Charles Chaplin
Official Website: Visit Website


Plot Outline: In Chaplins satire on Nazi Germany, dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a double... a poor Jewish barber... who one day is mistaken for Hynkel.
Plot: During the last days of the First World War, a clumsy soldier saves the life of devoted military pilot Schultz. Unfortunately, their flight from the advancing enemy ends in a severe crash with the clumsy soldier losing his memories. After quite some years in the hospital, the amnesia patient gets released and reopens his old barber shop in the Jewish ghetto. But times have changed in the country of Tomania: Dictator Adenoid Hynkel, who accidentally looks very similar to the barber, has laid his merciless grip on the country, and the Jewish people are discriminated against. One day, the barber gets in trouble and is brought before a commanding officer, who turns out to be his old comrade Schultz. So, the ghetto enjoys protection from then on. Meanwhile, Dictator Hynkel develops big plans, he wants to become Dictator of the whole world and needs a scapegoat for the public. Soon, Schultz is being arrested for being too Jewish-friendly, and all Jews except those who managed to flee are transported into Concentration Camps. Hynkel is planning to march into Osterlich to show off against Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria, who already has deployed his troops along the other border of the small country. Meanwhile, Schultz and the barber manage to escape, guised in military uniforms. As luck would have it, Schultz and the barber are picked up by Tomanian forces and the barber is mixed up with Hynkel himself. The small barber now gets the once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak to the people of Osterlich and all of Tomania, who listen eagerly on the radio.

Crazy Credits: We know about 1 Crazy Credits. One of them reads:
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".

Goofs: We know about 8 goofs. Here comes one of them:
Continuity: When Adenoid Hynkel climbs the curtains his left leg is up/down between shots.

Trivia: There are 39 entries in the trivia list - like these:

• Charles Chaplin got the idea when a friend, Alexander Korda, noted that his screen persona and Adolf Hitler looked somewhat similar. Chaplin later learned they were both born within a week of each other, were roughly the same height and weight and both struggled in poverty until they reached great success in their respective fields. When Chaplin learned of Hitlers policies of racial oppression and nationalist aggression, he used their similarities as an inspiration to attack Hitler on film.
• Charles Chaplin said that had he known the true extent of Nazi atrocities, he "could not have made fun of their homicidal insanity".
• Some reports refute Charles Chaplins claims of ignorance as to the true extent of Nazi atrocities, stating that Chaplin was very much aware of the various goings-on, but decided to make the film anyway as an attack on Nazi ideology.

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