Agnostic.com

1 2

Chaplin, 1940 (strangely prescient)...
[facebook.com]

phxbillcee 10 Mar 25
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

1 comment

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

1

Yes, that is from The Great Dictator. He played a dual role: Adenoid Hinckel, Chancellor of Ptomainia, whose flag is the sign of the double cross. Not hard to figure out who he's lampooning. In this scene, he is The Jewish Barber, who happens to look just like Hinckel, and is mistaken for him.

Great stuff. I also love the scene where Hinckel is giving a speech to an adoring crowd of tens of thousands. "Americanish -- SHTUNK!" he roars. Cheers. "Democrashun -- SHTUNK!" More cheers. He then goes into an incredible Hitler parody, at one point, the microphone in front of him tries to bend to get as far from him as possible.

And of course there's the scene where he lovingly does an acrobatic dance with a balloon-like globe which he caresses as he fantasizes about being ruler of it all -- until it blows up in his face.

Oh, and the scene where he's getting a hiarcut with an actor who is portraying a thinly-disguised Mussolini. One of them notices his chair is a little lower than the other, so he jacks it up a bit, then the other does the same and they are both trying to be a little higher than each other all the way to the ceiling.

I believe it was the first movie he made that wasn't silent. He held out throughout the 1930s and finally gave in to make this portrayal. Even at that, there are short silent sequences in the film.

If you've never seen it, I heartily recommend it.

Yes, this is in all senses a Classic, with a capital C. & Chaplin shouldn't have worried about "talkies", he did great!

@phxbillcee I don't think he was concerned that he couldn't do it so much as he felt it was ruining a pure art form. He believed in pantomime, pathos, and focusing on the actors and what they could convey with their body and faces. He went on to make sound films into the early 1950s and did fine.

You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:43305
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.