Where to watch The Great Dictator (1940)
The Great Dictator is available to stream in CA on The Criterion Channel, CTV and Crave. It can also be rented or bought from AppleTV.
A ruthless dictator seeks to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber struggles to avoid persecution under the regime. Their stories unfold through a blend of political satire, physical comedy, and an appeal for humanity amid rising authoritarianism.
Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert, Grace Hayle, Carter DeHaven, Maurice Moscovitch, Emma Dunn, Bernard Gorcey, Paul Weigel
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Trivia & production notes
- Chaplin watched Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and laughed uproariously at it, then used the film to study Hitler's mannerisms and inspire elements of The Great Dictator.
- Chaplin and Hitler were born four days apart in April 1889, a biographical coincidence that haunted Chaplin and partly motivated him to make the film.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed hope to Jack L. Warner that Chaplin would continue making The Great Dictator, and sent his assistant Harry Hopkins to meet with Chaplin to ensure federal support for the film.
- Chaplin began filming The Great Dictator on September 6, 1939, six days after World War II began, and finished almost six months later.
- Signs in the ghetto scenes of the film were written in Esperanto, a language Hitler condemned as a Jewish plot to destroy German culture because of its international nature and Polish-Jewish founder.
- Meredith Willson, who later composed The Music Man, credited Chaplin with the best ideas in the score, including the use of Wagner's Lohengrin prelude in the famous balloon-dance scene.
- The shaving scene set to Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 5 was recorded in a single take after Chaplin decided to keep a full run-through that Willson had planned only as a rehearsal.
- Nazi Germany's consul to the U.S. Georg Gyssling complained directly to the chief of the Production Code Administration about the film's development and implied threats to American film exports to Nazi Germany.
- In 1934, the Nazis published a book titled The Jews Are Looking at You describing Chaplin as a disgusting Jewish acrobat, despite his not being Jewish.
- Chaplin used his physical resemblance to Hitler, who also had a similar mustache, to give his Little Tramp character a creative reprieve during the 1930s.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Great Dictator, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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