This is the last film starring the Little Tramp and Charlie Chaplin's first talkie. It was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Picture, Actor, and Supporting Actor. Those facts alone secure this film its place in history, but they doesn't touch on its importance. In this film Charlie Chaplin criticizes and lampoons Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, the first film to do either. Production started in 1937 and it was released in September of 1940, a year after Hitler invaded Poland and over a year before Pearl Harbor, while the US was still isolationist. Chaplin was trying to have an effect on the world during one of its most critical times. While he was unsuccessful, in light of what happened, he has to be credited with trying.
Chaplin plays two roles in this film. First is a Jewish Barber who is the Little Tramp character. The barber served in World War I and suffered amnesia and returns to the Ghetto in 1937. The plot device allows an outsider's view of the racial policies. The barber fights with stormtroppers who paint "Jew" on his store front (as they have all store fronts) and he doesn't understand what's going on. Chaplin's second role is the Dictator of Tomania, Adenoid Hynkel, obviously modeled on Hitler. The physical similarities between Hitler and the Tramp are put to good use. Hynkel meets with Benzini Napaloni, the Dictator of Bacteria (obviously Benito Mussolini) as they both have plans to take the country of Osterlich (Austria). It's in these scenes we see Hynkel as a vain, egomanical, twerp. There is absolutely nothing to like in him. Thoughout the film Chaplin pokes fun at all of Hitler's mannerisms and the Nazi uniforms, salute, march, etc. In the end the barber is mistaken for Hynkel and gives a speech to crowd. The speach is serious and out of character of the film and is really Chaplin speaking to the audience, pleading for world-wide tolerance.
There are several famous scenes in this film, but I don't think they are particularly well known anymore, I rarely see them referenced. In one Hynkel dances with a balloon globe, imagining himself as world ruler. In another he shaves a man in perfect time to a Brahms Waltz played on the radio. Hynkel has Napaloni sit in a low chair so he can tower over him and this is taken to extremes as they sit in adjacent barber chairs and each raise their chairs to above the other until they hit the ceiling. It's interesting to note that all of these scenes either were or could have been silent.
Chaplin wasn't Jewish, but he shows the plight well. Stormtroppers terrorize the Ghetto, at one point hanging the barber. Other such scenes are played for more comedic effect with the heroine (Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time) hitting them on the head with a frying pan. In 1968 Chaplin stated that he wouldn't have been able to make such jokes if at the time he knew the extent of was going to happen. Hitler is known to have seen The Great Dictator twice but it's not known what he thought of it. Chaplin commented he'd have given anything to know. This film was baned in Nazi occupied Europe, that probably provides a clue.
While this is a comedy I didn't laugh out loud. As with anything on this topic It has many tragic scenes. By conventional measures it's a very good film though not great. And while it didn't have the effect desired by Chaplin, I think it's still an important movie. Art can (and should) express opinion and try to influence others. This film is probably the best example of a failed attempt that should have been heeded.
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