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Chaplin:Monsieur Verdoux

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According to the commentary included with this 1947 film, Chaplin considered Monsieur Verdoux one of his best films. It would be more accurate to regard it as one of the best for illustrating his enormous vanity and self-obsession. In his 1940 film, The Great Dictator, Chaplin found humor in Hitler, who resembled him slightly in appearance and more than slightly in ego. In this film he finds a similar humor in a French serial killer who woes and murders women for their money. For Chaplin, the central figure in all human history and the only person who matters is always himself.

A better man would have used the film as a launching pad for actors younger, poorer, and less well-established than himself. Chaplin, who also wrote and directed it, sees it as another opportunity to strut his talents. No other actor was given a major role. Even the pretty young woman (Marilyn Nash) who has the second most important role merely exists to inflate our opinion of M. Verdoux. We are supposed to be impressed that, intending to kill her to test a new poison, he takes pity and lets her live. Chaplin is that self-obsessed.

In a city park, I once had to tell a man throwing knives at a tree just a few feet from a busy walkway that he had to stop. He defended his actions by talking about all those who die in highway accidents each year. I told the deluded twit that he was talking nonsense, that there was no relationship between the danger that one of his knives would bounce off a tree, hitting an child's eye and far away car crashes. In this film, Chaplin, scriptwriter and actor, is equally deluded. He really does think he i's demonstrating a superiority morality when he compares his murders to the millions who die in wars: '"As a mass killer,"' a smug and smiling Verdoux tells us, "'I am an amateur in comparison.'"

This film may be sick as a comedy, but it is worth watching for what it tells us about Chaplin's politics and, by extension, the politics of similar celebrities today. When G. K. Chesterton warned between the wars that Germany would start another and still more horrible war, he explained why pacifists and militarists "are always in alliance, by a fatal logic far beyond any conscious conspiracy."' By defining every aspect of war as evil, he wrote, they equate the arsonist with the firefighter. Chaplin does just that in this film, equating the French and English, who certainly did not want the war that had ended two years before, with Nazi Germany, which did. M. Verdoux (and by extension M. Chaplin) is claiming to be above any criticism we might direct at him. He is that vain and that self-obsessed. That's the main message this film carries.

'Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II

I must take offense to scotsladdie's November 2001 "review" of "Monsieur Verdoux," since its ripped off almost verbatim from David Shipman's excellent book "Story of Cinema," which also is available from Amazon. Perhaps you should give Mr. Shipman the proper credit instead of scotsladdie. Otherwise, delete this particular review from you web site. Many thanks.

If the willingness to take risks is the mark of a great artist -- and I believe it is -- then Monsieur Verdoux is Charles Chaplin's greatest films. And amidst all the controversy stirred by his portrayal of a serial wife killer, it's easy to forget that it's also a hilarious black comedy with plenty of sharp lines that would have succeeded even without its sociological message.

Chaplin's ability as an actor is pushed to a new level on this film through his portrayal of a morally ambiguous, unscrupulous ex-bank clerk who has no qualms about putting a body into an incinerator in his backyard. While much has been said about this film's break with Chaplin's Little Tramp character, careful examination reveals that Henri Verdoux is just a logical, and daring, advancement in the character: The more devilish, sometimes sadistic sides of the Little Tramp taken to their inevitable conclusion, where comic mischief crosses over the line to villainy. And it's highly compelling, the perfect foil to Chaplin's most heartwarming films (eg. City Lights and Modern Times), allowing Chaplin to express an insidiousness hitherto unexplored. Martha Raye nearly steals the show as the airheaded, supernaturally unkillable Mme. Bonheur (the name itself means "happiness"), and Marilyn Nash is winning as the Belgian derelict who inspires a spark of compassion in Verdoux. The conclusion of this character relationship is one of Chaplin's most complex writing feats: Imagine the ending of City Lights twisted into a dark, steely, uncompromising version of itself.

There are certain moments when the film does threaten to fall into self-involvement -- in his later years, Chaplin did let his ego take ahold of his work -- but in the case of Monsieur Verdoux, he uses this larger-than-life persona so well, and it fits the character so snugly, that the ego becomes an advantage and adds to the depth of the character. And the script has none of the self-conscious mix of silent film and talkies that plagued The Great Dictator; Chaplin had grown quite well into dialogue writing, allowing him to formulate moments of murderous irony that are cuttingly funny. ("Don't pull the cat's tail...") I have no problems with the ending speeches in this film as I did with the final speech of The Great Dictator: In the context of this story, they fit in quite well. Verdoux at the end is a man who has given up all hope, and he seems to mock his own fate and character while unmercifully unveiling his anger at the world. The speeches are not meant to be taken for face value, and I find them thought-provoking and fascinating rather than moralistic or self-important.

I first saw this film at Symphony Space in New York City and the audience was laughing so hard it was in tears. With modern audiences generally less inclined to judge a film by its "moral standing" (Kill Bill, anyone?), Monsieur Verdoux can be seen for what it is: A hilarious, complex sociological examination which identifies social ills while at the same time taking part in it. In that, it is unique in the Chaplin canon and deserves to rank among his most important films.

A quick note about this DVD edition: For some reason, the bonus materials for this film are far less numerous than on the other DVDs in this series -- hence the single-disc package and lower price. By the standards of this series of reissues, the DVD materials are really quite scant -- a useful yet brief half-hour documentary featuring good insight from director Claude Chabrol, a trailer, some storyboards. The picture and sound are of good quality, however, and the film is one to own. Highly recommended.

Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin) is a sad story about Monsieur Verdoux who is a swindling murderer that charms women whom he marries for their assets which he sells after he has murdered a newly acquired wife. Monsieur Verdoux is driven to commit murder as he feels determined to provide the best possible life style for his family. However, Monsieur Verdoux is lost in his determination as it clouds his moral decision making, which he recognizes. Monsieur Verdoux is the darkest of Charles Chaplin's films, and as in his other films it offers a social message. This ominous message becomes apparent from the beginning of the film as Monsieur Verdoux's gravestone is depicted in the initial shot with Chaplin's voiceover that embarks on how he ended up here. Chaplin's direction offers both tragedy and comedy which in the end leaves the audience with a charming, yet disturbing cinematic experience.

A well written movie with twists and turns. It teaches a good lesson for 2004 and beyond.

Wow did he actully do that wow this is a good movie if you want to see a very good black and white killing movie watch monsieur verdoux. The movie has violence for its time but it knows its limits. Fired bank clerk Henri Verdoux makes money after that by well real estate, stock market, And oh yeah marrying wives and murdering them. With these violent actions no one liked it when it came out in April 1947 because charlie is a murderer. It feels a little bit better now but some people like me really like it. Charlie was a communist supporter with him being a murderer in this movie he had to leave the us with the start of the cold war. In 1952 on a ship with his 4th and last wife oona going to england for the premire of limelight(I also gave that 5 stars) 2 days after the ship left he found out he cant come back to the us. he only went back to america for an honorary oscar in 1972. Other than that He lived in swissaland until his death on Christmas day 1977

Chaplin became unbearable to those around him as he got older. He fancied himself an intellectual, a humanist, a philosopher, a great composer (actually, his arranger wrote his music and Chaplin gladly took the credit and the cash). Here, Chaplin plays a murderer who justifies his crimes because, bascially, others (Hitler) have done worse. Brillian moral reasoning, eh? A film, and man, without a moral compass.

It has been said that Orson Welles provided Chaplin with the idea of MONSIEUR VERDOUX and the latter seemed to have been attracted to Landru, the French Bluebeard, for his "message" value - for Verdoux's murders, the film claims, are hardly worse that the mass murdering done by nations; at his trial - supposed to take place in 1938, - Verdoux claims that the gains from his crimes are as nothing to those to be made in the forth-coming conflict. Verdoux is a meticulous dandy, with a voice so high-pitched as to be androgynous. His rapport with people and the scrapes he get into are entirely those of Chaplin the Tramp. The best scenes are those involving Martha Raye, who distrusts him as much as his other wives but will forgive anything for some slap and tickle - or more: in no other film of the period does a woman so lust after a man. There is also a waif (Marilyn Nash, perhaps the most amateurish of Chaplin's discoveries), and his dialogues with her are the essence of later Chaplin - naive philosophies passed on as truths, e.g., on death, "I guess if the unborn knew of the approach of life, they'd be terrified". In his memoir, Chaplin claims this to be "the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made". Although it is muddled, overlong and sometimes mistaken, he is probably right.

This was probably Chaplin's last great masterpiece. This film shows what a talented actor and director he was. I doubt Woody Allen ever could have pulled this off. Chaplin gets a terrific performance from Martha Raye. Some maybe put off by the sermonizing at the end, but this does not undermine the film.

Looking further than the actual story of a serial woman-killer, viewers need to take into account that the story is set in France shortly after the second war, therefore Chaplin has put lots of different meanings into his character's behaviour: the well-mannered well-spoken criminal who brutally murders women isn't without recalling the nazi regime's actions in a country devastated by years of enemy occupation. At the same time his numerous philosophical statements aren't without similarity with the political propaganda that was so common in Europe during the first half of the 20th century. To me Monsieur Verdoux is one of the best Chaplin's movies, along with The Great Dictator, and a Hitchcock-class thriller