06: Charlie Chaplin and His Fan, Adolf Hitler

We know that film can have a profound impact on the world, but this is especially the case for comedic films. Take Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 satire, The Great Dictator, where Chaplin parodies Hitler and the Nazi regime. The film tells the story of a Jewish barber, played by Chaplin, who is mistaken for a dictator he resembles and is asked to take his place. Numerous other directors have been influenced by this idea, notably Stanley Kubrick, Mel Brooks, Wes Anderson, and Chuck Jones. Some modern films follow a similar plot such as The Dictator, The Interview, and Jojo Rabbit.

Chaplin and Hitler were extremely similar in background (they were born four days apart in April 1889, and both had risen to great power from a childhood of poverty). Chaplin’s son would later write:

Their destinies were poles apart. One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. “Just think”, he would say uneasily, “he’s the madman, I’m the comic. But it could have been the other way around.”

But still, Chaplin chose to shoot the movie, reportedly after his films were banned from Nazi Germany because Hitler thought Chaplin looked a bit too much like him. Another account says that Chaplin wanted to make the film after reading a 1934 anti-Semitic propaganda leaflet that called him a “disgusting Jewish Acrobat.” The Nazi’s were wrong — Chaplin was raised Protestant and, as an adult, did not follow any organized religion — but this mistake made Chaplin laugh.

The Great Dictator began filming six days after World War II broke out, finishing just six months later. It wasn’t the first parody of Hitler in the United States (You Nazty Spy! by the Three Stooges claims that title), but it quickly became the most popular movie, even though Chaplin feared that wartime audiences would dislike a comedy about a “fictitious” dictator. The movie made a mockery of Nazism and drastically helped quell American fears about the war. Furthermore, Chaplin’s anti-fascist message influenced the U.S. population, who did not care much about what was going on in Europe and, in isolationist fashion, did not want to take sides between Hitler and those he persecuted.

Perhaps most importantly, humor allowed Chaplin’s message to be broadcast all over the world. At the end of the film, Chaplin delivers a stunning six-minute monologue, where he all but drops character and looks directly at the camera. He cries out, “We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities life will be violent and all will be lost.” Film Historian Jeffery Vance would later describe this speech in his book, “Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema:”

Here Chaplin drops his comic mask and speaks directly to the world, conveying his view that people must rise up against dictators and unite in peace. The most enduring aspects of the final speech are its aspirational quality and tone and its underlying faith in humanity. Chaplin sketches a hopeful future in broad strokes and leaves the implementation of his vision to others, despite the fact that the more unsavory aspects of human nature may prevent mankind ever reaching his promised utopia. Although some may find Chaplin’s message cliché, and even frustrating, one cannot help but be moved by the prescience of his words and the appeal of his powerful indictment of all who seek to take power unto themselves to the detriment of everyone else.

Critics at the time hated the scene for being overly sentimental (modern critics have praised it as a historically significant and important work of satire), but the average viewer loved it. Chaplin speaks to all who listened and laughed just a few short minutes beforehand. He looks directly into the camera, right into the viewer’s eyes.

One of those viewers was the Führer himself. A refugee from Germany who worked in the Nazi Ministry of Culture told Chaplin that Hitler had watched The Great Dictator not once, but twice. Both times entirely alone. Chaplain replied that he would “give anything to know what he thought of it.” I would too.

Chaplin would tell his son during production, “I’m praying, son, that this picture will have a good message and maybe help mankind a bit.” And help mankind it did.

Sources:

• Chaplin Jr., Charles. My Father, Charlie Chaplin. New York: Popular Library, 1961.
• Chaplin, Charlie. My Autobiography. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1964.
• Chaplin, Charlie. The Great Dictator. United States: United Artists, 1940.Chaplin, Charles. My Father, Charlie Chaplin. New York: Popular Library, 1961.