A wonderful film. I haven't read all of Lou's post so perhaps he mentions this: It was the first Hollywood film to attack Nazi Germany: producers were fearful of losing customers in Europe.
Carrol On 8/3/2011 11:01 AM, Louis Proyect wrote: > I don’t quite know how I managed to get this far in life without > having seen Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” but saw it for > the first time last night on TCM, the Turner Classic Movie cable > channel as part of a Paulette Godard festival. Just before “The > Great Dictator”, TCM aired “Modern Times”. In both films, Goddard > played Chaplin’s love interest, appropriately enough since they > were lovers off-screen. The casting choice of Goddard as a denizen > of a Jewish ghetto in “The Great Dictator” was of some interest > since she was born Marion Pauline Levy in Queens, NY to a Jewish > father and an Episcopalian mother although it is unlikely that her > ethnicity was a factor. As for Chaplin, despite playing a Jewish > barber in the film (as well as the look-alike dictator of Tomainia > Adenoid Hynkel) and despite widespread impressions that he was > Jewish, he was Christian. > > Even if you have not seen it, you probably know the outlines of > this militantly anti-fascist 1940 film. Chaplin plays an unnamed > Jewish Tomainian soldier who saves the life of a pilot named > Schultz during WWI. After their plane crashes, the injured barber > is taken to a hospital where he is treated for 20 years, > eventually recovering physically but still suffering from amnesia. > He returns to his barber shop in the ghetto, totally unaware that > his look-alike Hynkel has seized power and is planning pogroms. > > full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/the-great-dictator/ > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
