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The Great Dictator Overview:

The Great Dictator (1940) was a Comedy - Drama Film directed by Charlie Chaplin and produced by Charlie Chaplin and Carter DeHaven.

SYNOPSIS

Chaplin has a dual role in this film, his first with full dialogue: a sweet-natured Jewish barber and a murderous Hitler-type dictator. The film had huge satirical impact and made Chaplin a detested enemy of the Reich. Particularly delectable comic scenes are Hynkel's balletic "pas de deux"

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

The Great Dictator was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1997.

Academy Awards 1940 --- Ceremony Number 13 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorCharles ChaplinNominated
Best Supporting ActorJack OakieNominated
Best Music - ScoringMeredith WillsonNominated
Best PictureCharles Chaplin ProductionsNominated
Best WritingCharles ChaplinNominated
See More Oscar Winners

The Great Dictator BlogHub Articles:

Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" at 80: Dreamers and Doers

By FlickChick on Oct 19, 2020 From A Person in the Dark

This is my entry in the Classic Movie Blog Association's Politics in Film Blogathon. For more examples of how this red hot topic is handled on the silver screen, click here.Spoiler alert: this is going to get political. Typically, I try (sometimes not always successfully) to keep politics off this s... Read full article

The Great Dictator: Beware of Bufoons

By FlickChick on Sep 29, 2016 From A Person in the Dark

This is my entry in the Dual Roles Blogathon hosted by the great bloggers at Christina Wehner: Classic Movies, Musicals, Old Books and the Great American Songbook and Silver Screenings. Check both sites for more fabulous cinematic doubles. THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) In one of history's greate... Read full article

The Great Dictator (1940)

By Beatrice on Apr 6, 2014 From Flickers in Time

The Great Dictator Directed by Charles Chaplin Written by Charles Chaplin USA/1940 Charles Chaplin Productions Repeat viewing/Streaming on Hulu Plus #144 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die This has moments of absolute genius although I have mixed feelings about the concluding speech. A poo... Read full article

The Great Dictator (1940)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 15, 2013 From 4 Star Films

Starring Charlie Chaplin with Paulette Goddard, this satire blatantly critiques Hitler and the Nazis. The film opens during WWI where a little solider (Chaplin) saves an important military man. However, as a result he lands in a hospital with amnesia. All the while the power hungry dictator of Toman... Read full article

The Great Dictator (1940)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 15, 2013 From 4 Star Films

Starring Charlie Chaplin with Paulette Goddard, this satire blatantly critiques Hitler and the Nazis. The film opens during WWI where a little solider (Chaplin) saves an important military man. However, as a result he lands in a hospital with amnesia. All the while the power hungry dictator of Toman... Read full article

See More The Great Dictator Articles

The Great Dictator Quotes:

No Quote for this film.
The Great Dictator Facts
Adolf Hitler considered Charles Chaplin to be one of the greatest actors he had ever seen, while Hitler assumed that Chaplin was a Jew.
Some reports refute Charles Chaplin's claims of ignorance as to the true extent of Nazi atrocities, stating that Chaplin was very much aware of the various goings-on, but decided to make the film anyway as an attack on Nazi ideology.
Financed entirely by Charles Chaplin himself, and his biggest box-office hit.
During Hynkel's speech, there are several recognizable German words used. Most popular are "Wienerschnitzel" (a Viennese style breaded veal cutlet), and "Sauerkraut" (a kind of sour preserved cabbage). Others are "Leberwurst" and "Blitzkrieg". Though some other utterances vaguely resemble words in German, the speech is actually gibberish. Several times in the film, Hynkel utters "cheese und cracken!" in the context of an obscenity.
Charles Chaplin accepted an invitation to perform the movie's climactic speech on national radio.
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