History Film / TheGreatDictator

Ironically, for all of the controversy surrounding it, ''The Great Dictator'' was not the first American anti-Nazi comedy film -- Chaplin was upstaged by Film/TheThreeStooges with the short film ''Film/YouNaztySpy'' by nine months. It also wasn't the first anti-Hitler film of any sort -- that honor goes to ''Hitler's Reign of Terror'', released [[OlderThanTheyThink all the way back in 1934]].[[note]]Not many films attacking the Nazi regime were released before America's entry into the war. UsefulNotes/TheHayesCode technically forbade lampoons against public figures or world leaders and the studios were loathe at any rate to make any statements that might cause Hitler to ban their films in Germany, a lucrative market.[[/note]]

Ironically, for all of the controversy surrounding it, ''The Great Dictator'' was not the first American anti-Nazi comedy film -- Chaplin was upstaged by Film/TheThreeStooges with the short film ''Film/YouNaztySpy'' by nine months.

* OfficerAndAGentleman: Commander Schultz is a courtly and well-mannered officer who doesn't fit in with Hynkel and his thugs, and as a consequence is sent to a concentration camp
* OppressedMinorityVeteran: The Barber is a Jewish World War I veteran living in a parody of Nazi Germany.

* OfficerAndAGentleman: Commander Schultz is a courtly and well-mannered officer who doesn't fit in with Hynkel and his thugs, and as a consequence is sent to a concentration camp.

%%* TheGeneralissimo: Hynkel.

%%* GlovedFistOfDoom: [[http://colewebbharter.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/great-dictator-4.jpg Parodied (sans glove)]] by Creator/CharlieChaplin as Hynkel.

%%* HufflepuffHouse: Bacteria.

%%* MindScrew: Hynkel and Garbitsch try to psychologically dominate Benzino. It doesn't work. (How is this a mind screw?)

%%* OfficerAndAGentleman: Commander Schultz.

%%* PatrickStewartSpeech: The ending.

%%* {{Ruritania}}: Tomainia, Osterlich and Bacteria. AKA Germany, Austria, and Italy respectively. (How are they like Ruritanias?)

%%* SpockSpeak: Garbitsch.

%%* ArmiesAreEvil: The Tomanian Army. (What makes the army evil?)

%%* TheCaligula: Hynkel

%%* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to Chaplin's other work. Especially when viewed with hindsight. (How is the movie darker?)

%%* TheEeyore: One of the Jewish men at the ghetto. (How is he being an Eeyore.

%%* EvilutionaryBiologist: Garbitsch again.

%%* FictionalCountry: Tomainia and Bacteria are [[{{Expy}} expies]] for UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and UsefulNotes/FascistItaly.

%%* SpeakingSimlish: The FakeGerman.

* RomanAClef: The movie is essentially a thinly veiled, fictionalized version of Germany's Anschluss with Austria and of ''Kristallnacht'', the pre-war German pogrom that preceded TheHolocaust.

-->"Aut Caesar aut nullus. Emperor of the world. My world."

* SpinningPaper: To show the passage of time.

* MythologyGag: As the Stormtroopers start searching for Schultz, the Barber tries to warn him, but does so in mime, without speaking, and immediately afterwards claims to have "told" him about the danger. This is in reference to the Tramp's silent movie past, where he would only speak through title cards.

* FreezeFrameBonus: While the movie replaces Germany with the fictional Tomainia, on the newsreel you can still see the name Germany printed under the "Armistice" headline.

* MickeyMousing: An astonishing scene where the Jewish Barber shaves a customer in perfect time with the Hungarian Dance #5. Supposedly the intent was to record multiple takes and piece it together in editing; instead Chaplin brought the phonograph to the set, played the music, and nailed the entire routine on the first practice take.

* FreezeFrameBonus: While the movie replaces Germany with the fictional Tomania, on the newsreel you can still see the name Germany printed under the "Armistice" headline.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The film has Osterlich, the pacifist country next to Tomainia. It's an obvious parallel to Austria down to the name with a different spelling: Österreich is the German/Austrian name for Austria.
%%* FictionalCountry: Tomainia and Bacteria are [[{{Expy}} expies]] for NaziGermany and UsefulNotes/FascistItaly.

%%* FictionalCountry: Tomainia and Bacteria are [[{{Expy}} expies]] for NaziGermany and FascistItaly.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: The barber quotes Literature/TheBible (specifically Luke 17:20-21) in his RousingSpeech: "In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written " the kingdom of God is within man " - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people!"

* AsTheGoodBookSays: The barber quotes Literature/TheBible (specifically Luke 17:20 - 17:21) in his RousingSpeech: "In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written " the kingdom of God is within man " - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people!"

The film is also a landmark for Chaplin himself - it was his first all-sound film, released over a decade after the rest of Hollywood transitioned to sound. (In the meantime Chaplin had stubbornly made ''Film/CityLights'' and ''Film/ModernTimes'' as silent films.) And although the barber is explicitly ''not'' the Tramp character, he nonetheless has the Tramp's physical appearance - baggy clothes, big shoes, cane, and that moustache - and thus this film marks the final time Chaplin would invoke some version of this character on screen.

* CommissarCap: Chaplin lampoons Adolph Hitler and wears a wonderful Commissar Cap with a XX logo in place of the swastika.

* CasualDangerDialogue: When the Jewish Barber is hanging to an upside-down plane by just the control stick, he never even raises his voice. When the plane starts to dive, Schultz rambles about his beloved and daffodils, and continues ''even after the plane crashes''.

--> '''Jewish Barber''': Absolutely not.

''The Great Dictator'' was (of course) banned in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, although prints of the film still found their way into occupied Europe. According to an eyewitness, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler obtained a copy of the film and watched it twice; when Chaplin found this out, he said that he would give anything to know what he thought of it. Britain had announced that they were going to ban the film while the film was in production (so that it wouldn't interfere with the country's appeasement policy with Nazi Germany), but when the film was released, Britain had entered the war against the Nazis, and the film couldn't be brought in fast enough; it ended up providing some badly needed laughs at a time where laughs were in short supply for Britain (and most of Europe).

* Heel-Face Turn: Schultz has one after rescuing the barber from the storm troopers.

* OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope: Parodied - the film begins with the notice: "[[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Any resemblance between Hynkel the dictator and the Jewish barber is purely co-incidental]]".

%%* RomanAClef: The intro references this.

-->'''Translator''': [[{{Understatement}} His Excellency has just made reference to the Jewish people.]]

%%* ThoseWackyNazis

%%* WideEyedIdealist: Hannah.

%%* TheEmpire: Hynkel and Garbitsch's ultimate vision for Tomainia

%%* FictionalCountry: Germania and Bacteria.

%%* Heel-Face Turn: see [trope] is not context

%%* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The sons and daughters of the Double Cross are [[{{Expy}} clear expies]] for the Nazi Party.
%%* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Asserted at the beginning on the film.

%%* NoSwastikas: The [[MeaningfulName Double Cross]].

* OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope: Parodied - the film begins with the notice: "Any resemblance between Hynkel the dictator and the Jewish barber is purely co-incidental".

%%* PrinceAndPauper: The dictator and the barber in this case.

* StupidJetpackHitler: Made fun of. Herring is very enthusiastic about various inventions that all fail hilariously in ways that kills their inventors. Fuehrer Adenoid Hynkel is less enthusiastic and finally tells him to just stop, please.
%%* TactfulTranslation: Done with the dictator's speech [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4UhJpviVYg here]].

* AdolfHitlarious: Came pretty close to being the UrExample and TropeMaker, but was beaten out by Film/TheThreeStooges' ''Film/YouNaztySpy''.

%%* AuthorFilibuster: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbn-GjL6WLA "Look up, Hannah".]] (

%%* TheCaligula: Hynkel.

%%* DefectorFromDecadence: Commander Schultz.

%%* TheEmpire: Tomainia.

%%* EvilChancellor: Garbitsch.

%%* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The sons and daughters of the Double Cross. (How are they like Nazis?)