“The Great Dictator”

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 123, 26 May 1941, Page 2

“The Great Dictator”

CHARLIE? CHAPLIN'S FAMOUS COMEDY (State: Commencing on Friday next.) The great and inimitable Charles Chaplin, who lor a generation has mauitained pre-eminence as the leading comedian of the screen returns to tne screen in “The Great Dictator,” the master work upon which he lias bent his tireless energies these past two years and the picture which is causing international repercussions. The story (which Chaplin wrote himself) is based partly on fact. It deals with the fortunes of a citizen of Germany, a contented, busy little Jewish barber (this role is played by Chaplin) who serves in the army of his country in 1918. Injured in the war while saving a fellow soldier, he goes to the hospital and emerges, years later, in ignorance of the political changes that have taken place in the country in whose service he offered his life. There follows a series of amusing episodes, many of them dealing with his amusing encounters with the Great Dictator’s ruthless secret police and bully boys. Meanwhile the Great Dictator (Chaplin calls him Ilynkel in the story) is busy with affairs of state—among them tho question of what to do with his rival dictator, Napaloni (portrayed expansively and very comically by Jack Oakie). There are numerous altercations between the two, and these scenes achieve the heights of Chaplinesque clowning. Eventually, the plot brings us to a crossroads in the destinies of the little barber and the too-big dictator. This is effected by a neat twist in the plot, worked out in such a manner that the under-dog becomes the top-dog and tho Great Dictator is relegated t'o a deserved oblivion. This brings Chaplin his opportunity to sum up the entire raison d’etre of his film. He does so, in a challenging denunciation of the forces of evil. He speaks out forthrightly, fervently, directly to the audience. Thus the picture ends in a note of courage and hope for the downtrodden peoples of the world. The net effect of “The Great Dictator” is to prove that the millions of small, decent, rightthinking and humane people of the world —the people simply want to be let alone in the pursuit of their unpretentious but necessary tasks, the people who want to live, laugh and love, are sooner or later going to throw off the heavy chains of tyranny and the world is going to be a better place to live in.