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Monsieur Verdoux
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Monsieur Verdoux is a 1947 black comedy film directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin.
Plot
The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine.
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Encyclopedia
Monsieur Verdoux is a 1947 black comedy film directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin.
Plot
The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine. The film ends as Verdoux is being led to the guillotine in the prison courtyard after dismissing his killing of a few as no worse than the highly-praised killing of large numbers of people in every war.
Production
The script for this film, the idea for it given by Orson Welles, was inspired by the case of serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Welles sought to direct the film with Chaplin as star, but Chaplin backed out at the last minute, on the grounds that he'd never been directed in a full length film before and wasn't willing to start. Instead, Chaplin bought the script from Welles and rewrote parts of it, crediting Welles only with the idea. The lead character kills to make money, hence he is not (in his eyes) a murderer.
Another story suggests that although the script had yet to be written, Welles wanted Chaplin to play the lead role. Chaplin, deciding that he didn't want to have to write the script with Welles, opted out, saying in effect "If it isn't written yet, I'm not interested." After seeing the film, Welles insisted on receiving a screen credit for the story idea.
Since the film is a talking picture, there is some comedy in the dialogue as well as some physical comedy. Chaplin tended to work with a repertory company of actors who performed exclusively in Chaplin's films. Monsieur Verdoux, atypically for a Chaplin film, features some familiar Hollywood actors, including Martha Raye, William Frawley and Fritz Leiber, Sr.. Rumors have persisted that Chaplin's 1915-1923 leading lady Edna Purviance has a cameo appearance in the film. Chaplin biographer David Robinson wrote that Purviance did return briefly to the Chaplin Studios and prepared for a small role in the film, but that she did in fact not go before the cameras. Purviance did have a cameo in Chaplin's next film, 1952's Limelight.
Reception
The film was the first to feature no resemblance to Chaplin's famous "Tramp" character (The Great Dictator did not feature the Tramp, but his "Jewish barber" bore sufficient similarity), and consequently was poorly received in America when it first premiered. It was, however, more successful in Europe. The film and its dark themes were ill-suited to the American political and cultural climate of the time (less than two years after World War II ended), and Chaplin's popularity and public image had been irrevocably damaged by multiple scandals and political controversies prior to its release.
Chaplin was subjected to unusually hostile treatment by the press while promoting the opening of the film, and some boycotts took place during its short run. At one press conference to promote the film, Chaplin made his speech, then in inviting questions from the press with the words "Proceed with the butchering". Since then it has gained enough of a following to be considered a cult film.
Despite its poor critical and commercial performance, the film was nominated for the 1948 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
In 1964, Chaplin allowed Verdoux to be re-released along with several Chaplin films to play at the New York Plaza as part of a Chaplin film festival. The film was not only the biggest hit of the entire festival, but it broke box-office records for the Plaza. It is presumed that the reason for the successful re-release was the film being put out during a time that was more receptive to black comedy satires, such as the successful contemporary comedy film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which has a similarly dark premise.
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