Posted on 05/20/2022 7:30:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Throughout history, many dictators have expressed their admiration for the cinematic medium. While some have it as a tool to spread propaganda, others have marvelled at the magic of the movies. According to many reports, Adolf Hitler was also a cinephile and one of the films he allegedly watched multiple times was directed by none other than Charlie Chaplin.
In fact, many historians have discovered that Hitler’s idea about war was deeply informed by the cinematic medium since he mostly experienced it through newsreels and documentary clips that were shot on the battlefields. In addition to those, Hitler’s close associates claimed that he spent his free time watching a lot of films – especially American movies.
Some claimed that Hitler was a fan of icons such as Marlene Dietrich as well as Greta Garbo, often demanding an immediate supply of the latest films of his favourite actors even if they were banned in the country. Interestingly, the Charlie Chaplin film that Hitler is supposed to have watched twice is the most famous satirical treatment of the fascist.
Titled The Great Dictator, it is probably the most famous sound film Chaplin ever made and it has become immortalised in popular culture due to the iconic ending monologue. Although Chaplin had promised that he would never play The Tramp in a sound production, his rendition of Hitler appeared to be an analogue of the beloved character.
Chaplin’s son even wrote that the comedian was obsessed with the dictator: “Their destinies were poles apart. One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. ‘Just think’, he would say uneasily, ‘he’s the madman, I’m the comic. But it could have been the other way around.'”
When Hitler heard that Chaplin was making such a subversive film, he was reportedly angered. Many parts of the world with fascist sympathies banned The Great Dictator as well but like all great art, it has survived the test of time and is now seen as the perfect example of what cinema can achieve during the most difficult times.
There are conflicting reports about Hitler’s viewing of The Great Dictator, with some sources claiming that Chaplin sent his project to the fascist himself while his architect Albert Speer claimed that Hitler had never seen the film. Chaplin’s biographer Jeffrey Vance provided some more details about this rumour.
Vance recorded the testimony of an agent who fled Nazi Germany and had previously worked at the Nazi Ministry of Culture. According to that agent, the Nazi officials had acquired a copy of The Great Dictator for Hitler and the dictator watched the film on his own before watching it alone for the second time the next evening. When Chaplin heard of this, he said: “I’d give anything to know what he thought
No. He was a message runner in the List Regiment for most of the war.
He had lung damage from encountering mustard gas during his service in WW1, sounds like experiencing war to me.
I caught that too. Hitler was a WW I combat veteran. He saw a lot of brutal action, and some historians claim that is what gave him little regard for human life.
To say that Hitler got his ideas about war from movies is just silly, and it calls the rest of the article into question.
And won an iron cross.
From biographies I’ve read, Chaplin was an extraordinary mimic and an incurable ham actor, always plotting to steal the scenes, but he was also a complete failure as a Family Man.
Charlie could act alarmingly close to being a little dictator on his movie sets, allowing no room for discussion or debate. He had been extremely successful very early in his career and thus felt virtually infalible. Marlon Brando recalls on the set of Charlies last big film “The Countess From Hong Kong”. Marlon played one of the leads. He saw Charlie discussing stage setting with one of his sons. That son made some kind of silly mistake, making a reshoot necessary.
Charlie slapped his young adult son right there on the movie set in front of all the actors and stage crew. You could hear it. Nobody said anything about it. Marlon asked his son later, ‘how can you stand working with Charlie when he’s slapping you around?
His son seemed to brush it off, saying ‘That’s just the way he is”.
Yep, Hitler was up at the front for much of WW1.
"No. He was a message runner in the List Regiment for most of the war."
Hitler was twice decorated for bravery. He received the Iron Cross Second Class in 1914 and the Iron Cross First Class in 1918, an honour rarely given to a lance corporal. Hitler's First Class Iron Cross was recommended by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, a Jewish adjutant in the List Regiment.
-off a Google search result
The Great Dictator is a great movie. It gives me satisfaction to know that Hitler watched it and thus had to endure being mocked. Chaplin’s Hitler-like character in the movie did a funny speech - it was in a mixture of a kind of mangled English and German. Instead of the swastika, the symbol was a “double cross.” For those who have not seen the movie, Chaplin played two characters. One was a bumbling Hitler-like character and the other was a Jew who discovered that his country had been transformed into something awful.
Chaplin was also a communist
That’s right. I believe he was not allowed in this country for a long time because of his associations. That was changed when he was well up in age, too old to present a threat.
There is no evidence that Hitler had watched it or even had it, all his films were screened for him by staff and since it came out in 1940 after the start of WWII in Europe it would have been difficult to get it into Germany
People like Hitler are so used to being ridiculed they honestly don’t care.
Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross/ Second Class.
In all the accounts I've read of Hitler, by William L. Shirer and John Toland as well as others Hitler was only ever decorated with the Iron Cross/Second class which would have been a rare honor for an enlisted man.
In accordance with German military regulations the Iron Cross Second class was worn over the left breast pocket and could be worn with or without the Second Class ribbon which would have been looped through the second button hole on the tunic.
The Iron Cross First Class was always worn at the collar(or throat).
I've never seen a picture of Hitler wearing an Iron Cross First Class.
Good observation. It may have been historically awarded after he rose to power.
If Hitler watched American war films then he should have noticed that he would be defeated.
Hitler was a military dilettante and an outright idiot at strategy at times but he did have reverence for it's insignia and trappings.
He was living and working in the United States for somewhere around 30 years without becoming a citizen.
In the early 1950s, he took a cruise to Europe with intentions of returning to the states from his trip.
While on board the ship he received a message that the government wanted to question him upon his return about his communist ties and such. He would be allowed to re-enter the country and stay if he agreed to submit himself to this interrogation. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be allowed to come back to the United States. Chaplin chose to not come back and eventually settled in switzerland.
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