This is my first product remoo for 2015 and was the last thing I watched in 2014. I actually got the VHS tape used from an Amazon seller.

I heard it mentioned on the radio, when someone was comparing the cowards in Hollywood today with Chaplin's bravery in doing this film and the Three Stooges bravery in mocking Hitler in an even earlier film.

Then I saw that kiyasama mentioned enjoying his films so that convinced me.

This is his first talking movie and he played two roles in it - the brutal dictator and the good-hearted Jewish barber. The movie was filmed in the 1930's and released in 1940, before the U.S. was at war with Germany.

A couple of things interested me. One is that Chaplin had the moustache first, not Hitler. So, Hitler, who did go to the cinema as a young man, was perhaps fashioning himself after the great Chaplin.

But Chaplin, in this film, portrays Hitler for the buffoon and maniacal monster he was.

The only thing that is glossed over is what happened in the Concentration Camps and no one could have known that who wasn't a party to it at that time.

Chaplin later said if he had known about it, he wouldn't have made the film.

Chaplin was a fearless mocker of Mussolini and Hitler at a time when it wasn't clear whether or not these two would control the world.

He calls Germany "Tomania".

The scene where Adenoid Hinckle (Adolph Hitler) dances with the clear globe is one of the most brilliant scenes ever filmed.

I am so impressed with this movie - it is the first of Charlie Chaplin's that I have ever seen. I am going to try and learn more about him.

Chaplin made Hitler's list of those to be killed, by the way.

I would have taken Hitler a lot more seriously than anyone on the world stage did at that moment, considering what he was already up to at that time. The Prime Minister of Great Britain spent the greater part of the 1930's cuddling up to and appeasing Hitler, first with Austria, then Czechoslavakia and on and on.

Hitler and British Born Chaplin were born in the same year within days of each other, but Chaplin lived to be 88 and the coward, Hitler, killed himself rather than face up to his war crimes.

Brilliant movie for its time!

Charlie Chaplin and his wife, Paulette Goddard, together. Chaplin wrote, directed, produced and starred in this film.

This made me feel like I want to learn more about Charlie Chaplin. I think I had a bias against him because I just associated him with that "tramp" character before. This movie and learning about his bravery opened my eyes.

you can learn what facing up to a monster with writing and art really is. I would have to say that Charlie Chaplin was one of the bravest souls who ever lived, facing up to and mocking Hitler and Mussolini (and fascism) like that. Wow, I am really impressed! If only Neville Chamberlain and the other weasels had seen what Chaplin saw so clearly.

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Created Jan 01, 2015 at 11:02am • Submit your own review...