Amazing film, amazing Chaplin

Rating: 8/10 (12 February 2008)

Charlie Chaplin is "The Great Dictator" in this 1940 comedy-drama also starring Paulette Goddard, Reginald Gardner, Henry Daniell and Billy Gilbert. Chaplin has the dual role of a Hitler-like dictator, Adenoid Hynkel ("Hail, Hynkel") (all the countries are fictional, and the party logo is one X on top of another) and also a war veteran, a sweet barber who looks like Hynkel. There are some truly hilarious parts of this film as well as some truly dramatic ones. The barber trying to keep from falling out of a plane is just one; the nonsense German Hynkel speaks; the barber shaving one customer in time with the music, playing to Chaplin's silent film strengths; Hynkel's dancing with his world globe, which is really a huge balloon.
The serious parts take place in the Jewish ghetto where the Jews are persecuted by Hynkel's men - Jew is written on the store fronts, and the soldiers are violent. In such stark contrast to the comedy, these scenes make a strong impression. The ghetto never knows what to expect - when Hynkel is trying to get a loan from a man named Epstein to attack and take over Osterlich, he has his soldiers lay off the Jews so as not to upset Epstein. Eventually the barber winds up in a concentration camp but escapes and is mistaken for Hynkel.
Under Chaplin's direction, none of the film seems to be played for comedy. Hynkel himself is a buffoon, but he means it. The most amazing part of the film for me was the very end, when the Barber gives a speech as Hynkel. It's absolutely brilliant and very timely. The beautiful, radiant Goddard, looking at the sky, hope in her eyes, is not something I'll ever forget.
Highly recommended. Made in 1940, the U.S. had not entered the war and Europe's problems were just beginning. Alas, the barber's speech wasn't reality.