Poster © United Artists. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreComedy, Drama & War
RatedNot Rated
Runtime2 hr 5 mins
ReleasedOctober 15, 1940
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorCharlie Chaplin
StarringCharlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie
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The Great Dictator (1940)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| The Great Dictator's Details | |
| Genre | Comedy, Drama & War |
| Rated | Not Rated |
| Released | 10/15/1940 (New York City) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 5 mins |
| Budget | $2.2M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| The Great Dictator's Interests | |
| General | Barber chairs, Brahms on the radio, a balloon globe, frying pans as self-defense, two men with one mustache. |
| Music | Charlie Chaplin and Meredith Willson, the future Music Man himself. |
| Movies | Modern Times (1936). The Tramp's last walk before Chaplin found his voice. |
| Television | Saturday Night Live. Every political impression since stands on Chaplin's shoulders. |
| Heroes | Charlie Chaplin, who spoke up when staying quiet was easier. |
| The Great Dictator's Crew | |
| Director | Charlie Chaplin |
| Writers | Charlie Chaplin |
| Producers | Charlie Chaplin |
| Cinematography | Karl Struss, Roland Totheroh |
| Music | Charlie Chaplin, Meredith Willson |
| Edited By | Willard Nico, Harold Rice |
| Production | Charles Chaplin Film Corporation |
| Distributed By | United Artists |
Charlie Chaplin finally talks on screen in The Great Dictator, and the first big speech belongs to his dictator, barking fake German at a rally. Chaplin plays two men: a gentle Jewish barber and Adenoid Hynkel, a strutting send-up of Hitler. The Hynkel half is razor sharp, from a slow, dreamy ballet with an inflatable globe to a barber-chair standoff with Jack Oakie’s blustery Napaloni, each one cranking his seat higher. The barber’s half is where it hurts. Stormtroopers terrorize the ghetto, Paulette Goddard’s Hannah refuses to bow, and Chaplin plays that cruelty straight. The weak spot is the stitching. The two halves run side by side for long stretches without touching, and at 125 minutes the palace gags start repeating. Chaplin later said he couldn’t have made it had he known the full horror of the camps, and it’s worth watching with that history in mind. An 8.8 because it’s brave, funny where it chooses to be and sincere everywhere else. $5,317 says you go looking for more Chaplin before the week is out.
What works: Chaplin plays the dictator and the barber so differently they barely seem like the same actor, and the globe ballet is one of the great images in film comedy.
What doesn’t: The palace and ghetto stories drift apart for long stretches, and the Napaloni visit drags its slapstick out well past the point.
Who it’s for: Anyone who thinks old comedies can’t be brave, and anyone ready for a satire that knows when to stop joking.
Spoilers
Mistaken for Hynkel, the barber is pushed onto a stage in front of a vast crowd and a wall of microphones. Instead of a dictator’s speech, he gives a plea for kindness, freedom and democracy, and he ends by speaking to Hannah, who hears him on the radio far away and looks up.
Charlie Chaplin directs and plays both leads. A Jewish barber (Chaplin) fights for Tomainia in World War I, loses his memory in a plane crash, and spends twenty years in a hospital. When he finally walks back into his shop, the ghetto around it is under the thumb of Adenoid Hynkel (also Chaplin), a ranting dictator built as a direct send-up of Hitler. Stormtroopers patrol the streets. The barber's neighbor Hannah (Paulette Goddard) refuses to be pushed around. And Commander Schultz (Reginald Gardiner), the officer whose life the barber saved in the war, now wears Hynkel's uniform. One hundred twenty-five minutes, filmed while it was still dangerous to laugh.
Anyone who believes a well-aimed joke can stand up to a tyrant. Chaplin took aim in 1940.
Adenoid Hynkel / Directorphoto: Strauss-Peyton Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
| Charlie Chaplin | Adenoid Hynkel |
| Jack Oakie | Benzino Napaloni |
| Reginald Gardiner | Commander Schultz |
| Henry Daniell | Garbitsch |
| Billy Gilbert | Herring |
| Grace Hayle | Madame Napaloni |
| Carter DeHaven | Spook |
| Paulette Goddard | Hannah |
| Maurice Moscovich | Mr. Jaeckel |
| Emma Dunn | Mrs. Jaeckel |
| Bernard Gorcey | Mr. Mann |
| Paul Weigel | Mr. Agar |
| Chester Conklin | the barber's customer |
| Esther Michelson | a Jewish woman |
| Hank Mann | storm trooper stealing fruit |
| Florence Wright | a blonde secretary |
| Eddie Gribbon | a Tomanian storm trooper |
| Rudolph Anders (Credited | Robert O. Davis) as the Tomanian commandant at Osterlich |
| Eddie Dunn | the whitewashed storm trooper |
| Nita Pike | a secretary |
| Peter Lynn | a storm trooper commander |
| Stanley "Tiny" Sandford | a comrade soldier in 1918 |
| Joe Bordeaux | ghetto extra |
| Val Stanton | Professor Herr Kibitzen |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +240 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $972K; Profit / loss (est.) -$2.8M; Rotten Tomatoes 92%; Rotten Tomatoes critics 92% (53 reviews); IMDb users 8.4 / 10 (260,944 votes); movie.guru score 9.3.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.