Slideshow
MONSIEUR VERDOUX
U.S., 1947
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Story by Orson Welles and Charles Chaplin
Starring Charles Chaplin, Marilyn Nash, Isobel Elsom, Martha Raye
Approx. 125 min. 35mm.
Based on an idea by Orson Welles, a “comedy of murders,” with a fastidious, silver-haired Charlot doffing Tramp accoutrement for more elegant attire in his role as a 20th century Bluebeard, dispatching one wealthy wife after another — including outrageously vulgar nouveau riche Martha Raye. Banned by, among others, Catholic war veterans and Loews Theatres for its offensiveness, but, in fact, a wicked satire on the business of war.
Reviews
“MONSIEUR VERDOUX may once again be timely, but the audacity of its statement derives less from Chaplin’s antiwar polemic than from his antiheroic pose. No star ever took a greater risk with his public image or more directly challenged his audience.”
– J. Hoberman, The New York Times
“VERDOUX continues to haunt us and make us laugh. It’s as dated as its time, yet as fresh as today’s headlines.”
– Stephen Winer, The Criterion Collection
“The sharpest and funniest of Chaplin's audacious late films, it is also the most complex: a comic attack on the middle-class values of success and respectability that crosses from gallows humor into moral inquiry, a film that exposes its protagonist even as it encourages its audience to laugh with him.”
– Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The Criterion Collection