The Great Dictator, Pride and Prejudice, Road to Singapore

The most important cinematic event of 1940 was revolutionary in its respective way. This was Charlie Chaplin's long-awaited picture, The Great Dictator. Here, for the first time in his career, he played a speaking part. His enunciation was perfect, and his voice was pleasant in quality and, when the occasion demanded it, powerful. The great pantomimist was an accomplished speaking actor as well. Some of his best speeches, however, were delivered not in English, but in the grotesque, quasi-Teutonic jargon that was the native tongue of Hynkel, the Great Dictator of the mythical country of Tomania. Jack Oakie, as Napaloni, dictator of the neighboring country of Bacteria, shared comedy honors with Chaplin.

Chaplin played the dual role of a little Jewish barber who is the dictator's double and the dictator himself. Here he is, in the former role, being arrested by the Tomanian equivalent of the Gestapo, with Paulette Goddard, as Hannah, in the doorway. The picture's appeal was undoubtedly injured by the fact that it was begun in 1938, before the war, and was released in 1940. Many of the individual sequences in the picture were, nevertheless, worthy to rank among Chaplin's happiest inspirations. Chaplin, as usual, produced, wrote, and directed the film.

Through a fortuitous chain of circumstances the dictator is arrested in place of his double, and the little barber takes his place at the head of the army that is occupying a defenseless neighboring republic. Invited to address his victorious troops, the supposed Hynkel makes an impassioned plea for peace and tolerance. This, one of the closing scenes, shows Hynkel (Chaplin) and Schultz, his friend ( Reginald Gardiner), about to mount the reviewing stand. Many critics objected to the final speech in the picture on the ground that it took Chaplin out of character and was not in key with what had gone before.


Jane Austen's beloved novel, Pride and Prejudice, was filmed by Metro in 1940. Robert Z. Leonard directed a first-rate cast, Greer Garson especially contributing a glowing and delicate performance.

Road to Singapore brought together Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour in a riotously funny picture, and brought forth a number of even funnier sequels. This Road to was directed by Victor Schertzinger for Paramount in 1940.