Chaplin had kept silent on screen for years, and the voice he finally found in 1940 was aimed squarely at Hitler. He made the most humane film of his career as a satire of a world with five more tragic years still ahead, and it ends by reminding us that we think too much and feel too little.
Adenoid Hynkel rules Tomania and means to rule a great deal more. A Jewish barber, meanwhile, comes back to the ghetto after twenty years in a military hospital, unaware that anything has changed, and when he reopens his shop he gets in the way of stormtroopers who have come to smash its window. Chaplin wrote, directed and plays both men, because the dictator and the barber have exactly the same face.
Oscars
Nominated for Best Picture
1941
Oscars
Nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Charles Chaplin)
1941
Oscars
Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jack Oakie)
1941
Oscars
Nominated for Best Original Screenplay
1941
Oscars
Nominated for Best Original Score
1941
We use cookies to offer you the best possible experience on our site.
