Details

Release year: 1940

Storyline

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

Top credits

Directors

Charles Chaplin

Writers

Charles Chaplin

Cast

Charles Chaplin — Hynkel - Dictator of Tomania, A Jewish Barber
Paulette Goddard — Hannah
Jack Oakie — Napaloni - Dictator of Bacteria
Reginald Gardiner — Schultz

See all 79 credits →

Awards

0 wins & 5 nominations

See all awards →

Did you know

• Adolf Hitler banned the film in Germany and all Nazi-occupied countries. Curiosity got the best of him, and he had a print brought in through Portugal. History records that he screened it twice, in private, but not his reaction. He was said to have laughed only once which was during the 'barber chair scene' between Hynkel and Napaloni. Charles Chaplin said, "I'd give anything to know what he thought of it." West Germany finally lifted the ban in 1958.

• The movie was banned in all Nazi-occupied countries, but it was screened to a German audience once. In the occupied Balkans, members of a resistance group switched the reels in a military cinema to this film, which they had smuggled in from Greece. The German soldiers enjoyed the screening until they realized what it was. Some left the cinema, and some reportedly fired shots at the screen.

• According to documentaries on the making of the film, Sir Charles Chaplin began to feel more uncomfortable lampooning Adolf Hitler the more he heard of Hitler's actions in Europe. Ultimately, the invasion of France inspired Chaplin to change the ending of his film to include his famous speech.