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The Great Dictator (1940) 8.5
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a doppelganger, a poor but kind Jewish barber living in the slums, who one day is mistaken for Hynkel. Director:Charles ChaplinWriter:Charles Chaplin |
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Edit
Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Charles Chaplin | ... | ||
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Jack Oakie | ... |
Napaloni - Dictator of Bacteria
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Reginald Gardiner | ... |
Schultz
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| Henry Daniell | ... |
Garbitsch
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| Billy Gilbert | ... |
Herring
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Grace Hayle | ... |
Madame Napaloni
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Carter DeHaven | ... |
Bacterian Ambassador
(as Carter De Haven)
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| Paulette Goddard | ... |
Hannah
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Maurice Moscovitch | ... |
Mr. Jaeckel
(as Maurice Moscovich)
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Emma Dunn | ... |
Mrs. Jaeckel
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Bernard Gorcey | ... |
Mr. Mann
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Paul Weigel | ... |
Mr. Agar
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Chester Conklin | ... |
Barber's Customer
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Esther Michelson | ... |
Jewish Woman
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Hank Mann | ... |
Storm Trooper Stealing Fruit
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Edit
Plot Summary
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Add Synopsis
Storyline
Twenty 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 since been hospitalized the result of 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, who 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 want for world domination, starting with the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, which may be threatened by Benzino Napaloni, the dictator ... Written by Huggo
Taglines:
Chaplin talks . . while You Laugh ! His greatest comedy since "Shoulder Arms" and "the Gold Rush" ! See more »Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
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Details
Country:
USARelease Date:
7 March 1941 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
The Dictator See more »Box Office
Budget:
$2,000,000 (estimated)Company Credits
Show detailed
company contact information
on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)Color:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1
Edit
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.
See more »
(uncredited)
Written by Johannes Brahms
Played on the radio during the shaving scene
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
The world premiere of the film was held at two packed theaters (the Astor and Capitol) in New York on 15 October 1940. It was a much anticipated gala affair attended by many luminaries, including Alfred E. Smith, James A. Farley, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., Fannie Hurst, Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. Charles Chaplin and his wife and co-star Paulette Goddard made an appearance at both theaters. They watched the movie in a loge at the Capitol with H.G. Wells, Constance Collier and Tim Durant, among others. See more »Goofs
Some of the time that the Barber and Schultz are upside down, they are backwards. They actually switched seats and Charlie is now on the right, instead of the left where he properly belongs. See more »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.
See more »
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". See more »Soundtracks
"Hungarian Dance No. 5"(uncredited)
Written by Johannes Brahms
Played on the radio during the shaving scene
See more »
Hynkel, dictator of Tomania, is a spoiled child who becomes angry when he cannot gets what he really wants... And what he simply wants is nothing less than the world...
In one of the extraordinary scenes of Chaplin art, Hynkel performs a ballet with the 'world' which bursts when he thinks he has it in his grasp...
Chaplin also has some biting words on war and war films... In a scene at the beginning of the movie, which takes place during World War I, the Tomanian messenger crashes the plane and thinks... He is about to die... In a state of delirium, he begins to say ridiculous words... The empty double-talk continue ascending into a brilliant take off on all the heroic death scenes of War films...
In another scene when he becomes a fugitive in the Jewish ghetto and assumes command of the resistance fomenting rebellion among the old men, he plans to kill the dictator... One of the group must kill the ruthless conqueror of Austerlich... Whoever is chosen will naturally die, but his heroic death will be rewarded and his name will shine like a star in Tomanian history...
The sequence in which he and four other characters eat cream cakes containing coins to determine which shall sacrifice his life to murder the dictator is a bitter hilarity filled with great fear...
For all its disappointing shortcomings, "The Great Dictator" is still a significant movie for the ironic tones of the film adding something that neither Chaplin nor anymore else could have given it: the irony of history... The necessity to murder Hynkel presages the assassination attempt against Hitler by his generals... The force of the original satire is only surpassed by history's imitation of art...
With a splendid sequence like the duck-shooting accident which leads to the dictator being mistaken for the humbly Jewish barber and vice versa, "The Great Dictator" is Chaplin's first talking movie... This time 'Charles' and not 'Charlie,' wanting to say more through his movie and not through an amusing comedy, the last in which he uses his celebrated 'Tramp Character.'