For the next year on my Classic Movie Diary project, I watched Monsieur Verdoux, Charlie Chaplin's first full 'talkie' movie.
1940: Rebecca
1941: Citizen Kane
1942: There Was A Father
1943: The Ox-Bow Incident
1944: Laura
1945: Brief Encounter
1946: It's A Wonderful Life
Some of my absolute favourite classic films have been from Charlie Chaplin- Modern Times, The Gold Rush and City Lights are among my favourites of all time. Apart from featuring genuinely hilarious physical comedy, his films have a sentimental sense of optimism that is sorely lacking from modern cinema. For his first full 'talkie' movie, Chaplin moves away from his traditional slapstick storytelling and instead towards a darker sense of humour.
Monsieur Verdoux, played by Chaplin, is a man who supports his wife and child by marrying a number of rich widows under different aliases and murdering them for their money (which sounds scarily similar to my tactic whilst playing The Sims). Everything is going well until he struggles to kill his 14th victim and also takes pity on a poor but beautiful young woman recently released from prison.
Whilst this film definitely has elements of Chaplin's signature physical humour, it leans more into a black comedy sensibility in the same vein as the Coen brothers' Fargo or 2011's Bernie. We are essentially following the story of a serial killer, presented in a somewhat sympathetic light, and rooting for him to get away with his crimes. Though the very concept itself is years ahead of its time, there is the feeling that the execution of the premise is slightly held back by the censorship of the era- the fact that each of Verdoux's wives are inherently unlikable, for example, so that we don't feel too bad when Chaplin does away with them. In fact, I would love to see a Monsieur Verdoux limited series, especially in a time where the 'fun psychopath genre' of entertainment is booming (Killing Eve, Barry, Joker etc).
Chaplin's famous character, the Little Tramp, was the actor's chance to explore the humorous antics of a man marginalised from society and living in poverty. (1940's The Great Dictator, another Chaplin film, prominently criticised war). Despite a plot that may not immediately link to societal issues, Monsieur Verdoux has a lot to say about society. In some ways, this film reminds me of two 2019 releases: Joker and Parasite. All three films share the idea of society pushing people living in poverty or with psychological issues to commit crimes, whilst offering an ambiguous answer as to who is really at fault for the state of the world.
Overall, this was one of my favourite movie premises though perhaps the execution was limited by the tolerance of the era. Chaplin makes a seamless transition from silent film to a dialogue driven narrative, whilst still retaining his charming sense of humour and comic timing.
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