Saturday Night Cinema
The Dictator

The Dictator Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Godard (who is the bomb) 

The Great Dictator is a comedy film directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin. First released in October 1940, it was Chaplin's first true talking picture, and more importantly was the only major film of its period to bitterly satirise Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

Story continues below advertisement

The film is unusual for its period, as the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Chaplin's film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Hitler, fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis, the latter of whom he excoriates in the film as "machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts".

The film stars Chaplin as Hynkel and the barber, Paulette Goddard as Hannah, Jack Oakie as Napaloni, Reginald Gardiner as Schultz, Henry Daniell as Garbitsch and Billy Gilbert
as Field Marshal Herring, an incompetent adviser to Hynkel. Chaplin
stars in a double role as the Jewish barber and the fascist dictator
(or "Phooey", parodying "Führer") clearly modeled on Adolf Hitler.

The names of the aides of Adenoid Hynkel are parodies of those of
Hitler's. Garbitsch (pronounced "garbage"), the right hand man of
Hynkel, is a parody of Joseph Goebbels, and Field Marshal Herring was modeled after the Luftwaffe chief, Hermann Göring. The "Dig-a-ditchy" of Bacteria, Benzino Napaloni, was modeled after Italy's Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. Benzino is played with arrogant buffoonery by Jack Oakie.

Much of the film is taken up by Hynkel and Napaloni arguing over the
fate of Osterlich (Austria). Originally, Mussolini was opposed to the
German takeover since he saw Austria as a buffer-state between Germany
and Italy. The international community (in particular, France and Britain, Mussolini's Stresa front partners) did not share Italy's concern over German annexation of Austria and even supported League of Nations sanctions against Italy. In 1936, Mussolini submitted to Hitler's will, withdrew Italian troops from the Brenner Pass
along the Austrian border, and moved closer to Germany, as Hitler did
not apply sanctions against Italy. This conflict is almost forgotten
today given Italy's alliance with the German Third Reich during World War II.

The film contains several of Chaplin's most famous sequences. The
rally speech by Hynkel, delivered in German-sounding gibberish, is a
caricature of Hitler's oratory style, which Chaplin studied carefully
in newsreels.[4] The German words schnitzel, sauerkraut and liverwurst can be made out, as well as "Katzenjammer Kids"
and English phrases such as "cheese'n'crackers" and frequently "lager
beer", in the fake German Hynkel speaks during the rally and at other
points in the film when he is angry (though he normally speaks
English). Billy Gilbert as Herring is also required to improvise this
fake German at times, and at one point (where he is apologizing for
having accidentally knocked Hynkel down the stairs) he comes up with
the word "banana".
Chaplin is clearly taken by surprise and repeats, "Der banana?" before
incorporating the word into his own reply. Chaplin, as Hynkel, has a
tendency to remove Herring's medals when he gets angry. In the scene
where Hynkel receives news that Napaloni mobilized his troops along the
Osterlich border, Hynkel not only removed all of Herring's medals, but
removed all of his buttons on his shirt, revealing a striped shirt with
suspenders and then slaps Herring.

Chaplin, as the barber, shaves a customer in tune with a radio broadcast of Johannes Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 5, recorded in one continuous take. The film's most celebrated sequence is the ballet dance between Hynkel and a balloon globe in his palatial office, set to Richard Wagner's Lohengrin Overture,
which is also used at the end of the film when the Jewish barber is
making the victory speech in Hynkel's place. The globe dance had its
origins in the late 1920s, when Chaplin was filmed at a Hollywood party doing an early version of the dance, with a globe and a Prussian military helmet (this footage appears in the documentary Unknown Chaplin).

The film ends with the barber, having been mistaken for the
dictator, delivering an address in front of a large audience and over
the radio to the nation, following the Tomainian take-over of Osterlich
(an obvious reference to the German Anschluss of Austria on March 12, 1938). The address is widely interpreted as an out-of-character personal plea from Chaplin.

Some of the signs in the shop windows of the ghettoized Jewish population in the film are written in Esperanto, a language which Hitler condemned as a Jewish plot to internationalize and destroy German culture.[5]

The film is for A-jad and O-jad.

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

Quick note: We cannot do this without your support. Fact. Our work is made possible by you and only you. We receive no grants, government handouts, or major funding. Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here.

Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s essential NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America's survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.

Follow Pamela Geller on Gettr. I am there. click here.

Follow Pamela Geller on
Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. It's open and free.

Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spammy or unhelpful, click the - symbol under the comment to let us know. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

If you would like to join the conversation, but don't have an account, you can sign up for one right here.

If you are having problems leaving a comment, it's likely because you are using an ad blocker, something that break ads, of course, but also breaks the comments section of our site. If you are using an ad blocker, and would like to share your thoughts, please disable your ad blocker. We look forward to seeing your comments below.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Sponsored
Geller Report
Thanks for sharing!