Film

The Great Dictator

Name: The Great Dictator
Genre: Comedy, War
Released: 1940
Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell

Chaplin's brave, strange 1940 satire pairs a preening fascist dictator with a persecuted Jewish barber – both played by Chaplin himself. It's slapstick and vaudeville tangled up with genuine dread, made while the horrors it mocks were still unfolding. Funny, then suddenly not. A landmark of political comedy, and possibly the only film where a rubber-globe dance number sits beside one of cinema's most earnest political speeches.

TMDb rating

8.3

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

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