Chaplin' s " Dictator''

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 237, 5 October 1940, Page 6 (Supplement)

Chaplin' s " Dictator''

rE GREAT DICTATOR" is completed—the first Charlie Chaplin comedy since "Modern Times" five years ago. Not only that, there are the following footnotes: That it was completed in 177 dayj of shooting time, which is reasonable enough when it is considered that Chaplin writes the story and the dialogue, directs the story, plays a dual role in the picture, edits it and scores the music. It cost in the neighbourhood of more than two million dollars.

That it is the most ambitious and fhe most expensive production that Chaplin lias ever attempted is less important than the fact that it involves the little clown in artistic responsibilities and caricature that he has never before attempted. For, in "The Great Dictator" Chaplin is seen not only as the little trainp with the derby, the cane and the awkwardly fitting" shoes, but in another role as well—that of a mighty dictator of a war-mad Power. There are two etories that converge— the story of the little barber from the ghetto, and the story of the palace.

Notwithstanding the fact that Charlie has the omnipresence of a dual role, the cast that supports him in "The Great Dictator" is larger by far and far more important than in "Modern Times," "City Lights," or any of the earlier Chaplin comedy masterpieces. Paulette Goddard, who has achieved a stardom of her own since she was first introduced in a Chaplin comedy, again is his lead-

ing lady, and it is she with whom he plays the poignant romance of the story. Jack Oakie is seen and heard in the connivings of the rival dictator, Napaloni. Reginald Gardiner, well ieraem J be red on Broadway as the man who made wallpaper talk, is Schultz, aide to the dictator. Emma Dunn, the late Maurice Moscovich, Bernard Goroey, Billy Gilbert, Clarte* DeHaven and many others are in the roster.

Chaplin Talks And Chaplin talks. How? His first speech in the picture has been .given a dramatic frame; it is an event. He is still the mild and pathetic little man with the doe eyes. His speech is exactly what you would expect as the little clown of screen history. But as the mad dictator, lie thunders and roars, rants and screams into a dozen withering microphones in an indecipherable guttural.

There are scenes in which many thousands pay homage to the arriving dictator, of armies marching, of gala state dinners and magnificent balls, scenes in winch the massed populace cheers on cue to frenzied, frantic ora tory, love scenes on the roof tops, the song and dance of peasants. Chaplin, breaking the silence that habitually enshrouds the production of his pictures, points out that notwithstanding anv burlesque of history and world "event's that might be found in "The Great Dictator," no change in the story was necessitated by those events. This story will be seen on the screen as the little comedian first conceived it without revision.