In 1941, Charlie Chaplin made The Great Dictator, one of the biggest successes of his career. At that point, the man who invented the most famous movie character in the world – The Tramp – had been in pictures for nearly thirty years. The Great Dictator only served to cement his status, proving that he could survive the transition to talkies, with humor that still fit snugly next to political sentiments. But after the war, Chaplin was not praised as one of the first people to make fun of Hitler. Instead, he was targeted as a communist and provided fodder for the press through Joan Berry's paternity suit and his marriage to 18-year-old Oona O'Neil. Needless to say, The Tramp and The Great Dictator were long forgotten by this point.
So, 1946 rolls around and he decides it's time to go back to filmmaking. Chaplin was never one to do what was expected, so instead of making a sure success, he decided to make a bizarre dark comedy about a man who marries women and kills them for their money. He gave the world Monsieur Verdoux in 1947. While it was a flop in its day, it is now considered among his masterpieces and rightly so.
Verdoux starts with the image of a graveyard. Verdoux is narrating his story from the grave, so we know right away the eventually his crime will not pay. But as long as it does, we might as well enjoy it. The title character is a man with a wife, a son and a job as a bank clerk. When the Great Depression sweeps through France, he loses his job. Since he's unable to find work, Verdoux decides to marry multiple rich women around France, using different aliases. When he gets their money, he kills them.
The plan is working remarkably well, but a few things trip him up. First, the Couvais family start getting a little concerned when a member of the family doesn't return from her honeymoon and they go to police. Then, there's his current wife, the loud-mouthed Annabella Bonheur (Martha Raye) who, for some inexplicable (but hilarious) reasons cannot be killed! And last but not least, Verdoux bumps into The Girl (Marilyn Nash), a woman just out of prison but with enough words of wisdom that she touches Verdoux in a way no other can. She's a person that Verdoux sees in himself and makes him rethink his schemes.
Verdoux is the first film where Chaplin completely rid himself of The Tramp persona. He reminds the audience that the Tramp was just a character that he played for decades and that he can be funny in other ways. There is no reliance on sight gags here. Even in The Great Dictator, one could easily see that Chaplin still questioned the validity of sound in film, but here he's fully embraced it. The great aspect of the film is the voices here. Chaplin uses that eloquent English accent for his character as part of the many ways to get you to empathize with a cold blooded killer. Then there's the boisterous way Martha Raye jabbers away, stealing scenes from the Master of Comedy.
But Chaplin is just too good a filmmaker to completely reject what made his silent films all classics – a strong visual sense that conveyed story through images and pantomime. Films like The Kid or City Lights would make sense if you took inter-titles away. He just knew how to tell stories without words better than anyone. With Verdoux, Chaplin strikes the perfect balance. For example, in the first murder we see him commit, it takes place offscreen. The camera remains standing at one end of a corridor and we can see that it is night. Without a single cut or move, it suddenly turns light outside and a smiling Verdoux walks out of the room. We know exactly what happened, but there is no sound or words to tell us.
Even though his political situation was already at a nadir – the American press had already branded him a communist – or perhaps because of that, Chaplin still had to make a political statement with Verdoux. If mass killings are promoted by society during war without much purpose, why should killings with a moral purpose (Verdoux's is to help is family) not be accepted, Chaplin asks during his eloquent speech in court at the end. It's a thought bound to make anyone with authority nervous and of course it torpedoed the film. I have to wonder if the film's response may have been different had Chaplin been able to show this without spelling it out for an audience that just won World War II.
“As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison,” he tells the prosecutor. “However, I do not wish to lose my temper, because very shortly, I shall lose my head. Nevertheless, upon leaving this spark of earthly existence, I have this to say: I shall see you all very soon. Very soon.”
Monsieur Verdoux may be the darkest feature film in the Chaplin cannon, but it is one of those rare films that withstood the test of time and has been able to shake away all the negative publicity that drowned it 66 years ago. The fact that it is now known for its whimsical plot, amazing acting and hilarious moments more than anything nasty said about Chaplin at the time means that he won.
On Home Video: The Chaplin estate has teamed up with the Criterion collection to release his films in recent years, which means that they are all getting the top-notch treatment they deserve on home video. Criterion released Verdoux back in March with a surprisingly slim collection of features that just go over the production and the press, but both are informative and worth watching. The reason to get it on Blu-ray is to experience the restoration at home as best as possible.
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