Sunday 15 October 2017

77 years ago: World Premiere of Charlie Chaplin's Great Dictator in New York

 The physical resemblance between the Tramp and another famous man with a little black mustache was not lost on Chaplin. In his first all-talking picture, he plays both a Jewish barber and his double, Adenoid Hynkel, the absolute ruler of Tomainia. As Hynkel and his henchmen Herring and Garbitsch engineer the persecution of Jews and the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, the amnesiac barber may be the only person innocent enough to stop them. Throughout the film Chaplin powerfully exploits the deflating power of parody, while in the finale he abandons both character and comedy to deliver one of the most inspirational speeches in recorded history with an impassioned plea for human tolerance.This was not just a film,  this was  a message from Charlie Chaplin's deep humanity. The world still needs to stand still and listen and stand against the forces of fascism.

An earlier tribute  of mine to this great man can be found here :-

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/charlie-chaplin-b1641889-251277-citizen.html 

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