The Great Dictator is a 1940 American political satire comedy-drama film written, directed, produced, scored by, and starring Charlie Chaplin.
Plot[]
After dedicated service in the Great War, a Jewish barber (Charles Chaplin) spends years in an army hospital recovering from his wounds, unaware of the simultaneous rise of fascist dictator Adenoid Hynkel (also Chaplin) and his anti-Semitic policies. When the barber, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Hynkel, returns to his quiet neighborhood, he is stunned by the brutal changes and recklessly joins a beautiful girl (Paulette Goddard) and her neighbors in rebelling.
Cast[]
People of the ghetto[]
- Charlie Chaplin as a Jewish barber
- Paulette Goddard as Hannah, the Barber's neighbour
- Emma Dunn as Mrs. Jaeckel
- Bernard Gorcey as Mr. Mann
- Paul Weigel as Mr. Agar
- Chester Conklin as Barber's customer
People of the palace[]
- Charlie Chaplin as Adenoid Hynkel
- Jack Oakie as Benzino Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria, a parody of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
- Reginald Gardiner as Commander Schultz
- Henry Daniell as Garbitsch
- Grace Hayle as Madame Napaloni, the wife of Benzino
- Carter DeHaven as Bacterian ambassador
Other cast[]
- Stanley "Tiny" Sandford as a comrade soldier in 1918
- Joe Bordeaux as ghetto extra
- Hank Mann as storm trooper stealing fruit
- Also featuring Esther Michelson, Florence Wright, Eddie Gribbon, Robert O. Davis, Eddie Dunn, Nita Pike and Peter Lynn.