Trivia / The Great Dictator

• Acting for Two: Charlie Chaplin plays both the hero and the villain, though they never meet in person.
• Banned in China:
  • Unsurprisingly, Adolf Hitler banned the film in Germany, and it was banned in all countries occupied by him as well. Curiosity got the best of him still, and he had a print brought in through Portugal. History records that he screened it twice, in private, but history did not record his reaction to the film. Charlie Chaplin said "I'd give anything to know what he thought of it." For political reasons in Germany, the ban stayed after the end of World War II, until 1958.
  • Although this movie was banned in all occupied countries during World War II, it was screened once to a German audience. In the occupied Balkans, members of a resistance group switched the reels in a military cinema and replaced a comedic opera with a copy of this film, which they had smuggled in from Greece. So a group of German soldiers enjoyed a screening of this film until they realized what it was. Some left the cinema and some were reported to have fired shots at the screen.
  • In Spain, the film was banned until dictator Francisco Franco died, in 1975. It would be released there in April 1976.
  • While it was not completely banned, the film had the scenes involving Mrs. Napaloni cut in post-war Italy until 2002. Perhaps surprisingly, it was done as an act of leniency toward Mussolini's second wife Rachele Guidi, who had survived the war (she died in 1979) and had never been a prominent figure in his regime, to the extent that Mussolini's mistress Clara Petacci is still far more infamous. Ironically, while the film depicts Mrs. Napaloni as a shy, clumsy woman, Guidi was described as "the true dictator of the family home" by her own daughter Edda.
• Completely Different Title: Known in France as Le Dictateur (The Dictator^note The title of Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator hasn't been translated in the country, probably to avoid confusion between both movies).
• Creator Backlash: Charlie Chaplin stated had he known about the full extent of what was going on in Europe, particularly after the movie was finished, he'd have never made the film.
• Doing It for the Art: Charlie Chaplin financed the film himself. Some of his associates tried to talk him out of the final speech about peace. One film salesman said the speech would cost him a million dollars at the box office. Chaplin replied, "Well, I don't care if it's five million."
• Dyeing for Your Art: Jack Oakie had been on a diet before filming started. To make him large enough to contrast effectively with Charlie Chaplin ordered his cook to fatten Oakie up.
• I Am Not Spock: Jack Oakie once said that he "had made hundreds of pictures, but they only remember me as Napaloni in The Great Dictator ."
• Inspiration for the Work: Chaplin was inspired to make the film after viewing Triumph of the Will with French filmmaker René Clair at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Luis Buñuel reports that Clair was horrified by the power of the film, crying out that this should never be shown or the West was lost. Chaplin, on the other hand, laughed uproariously at the film, thinking Hitler was the greatest comedian he'd ever seen.
• Method Acting: Charlie Chaplin said wearing Hynkel's costume made him feel more aggressive, and those close to him remember him being more difficult to work with on days he was shooting as Hynkel.
• Reality Subtext: The film was prompted when someone pointed out the visual similarities between Chaplin's "Tramp" character and Adolf Hitler.
• Referenced by...:
  • In the 20th-century sections of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Adenoid Hynkel is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler.
  • Laibach's "Tanz mit Laibach" includes the lines "Wir tanzen Ado Hynkel, Benzino Napoloni".
• Throw It In!: The faux-German was improvised.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In his autobiography Charlie Chaplin, who'd resisted for ten years going over to talkies, revealed that his original concept of the film was to mix silent sequences featuring the Tramp with talking sequences featuring The Great Dictator.
  • Chaplin planned shots of people all over the world accepting the message of peace, as goose-stepping German soldiers broke in a waltz and Japanese bombers dropped toys on Chinese children. He actually started shooting some of these scenes before abandoning the idea. They survive in home movies shot by his son.
  • Hynkel's dance with the globe was originally written as a scene in which he cuts up a map of the world to rearrange the countries the way he wants.
• Word of Dante: The movie Chaplin suggests that Chaplin viewed the Jewish barber as the final incarnation of the Tramp.
  Chaplin: I know talking will be the end of the Tramp. But at least he'll end saying something I believe in.
• Working Title: Charlie Chaplin originally intended to call the film The Dictator, but received notice from Paramount Pictures that they would charge him $25,000 for use of the title; they owned the rights to an unrelated novel by Richard Harding Davis. Chaplin balked at the conditions and inserted "Great" into the title. (In France, the film is known as Le Dictateur and in Finland, it is Diktaattori).

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