Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Charlie Chaplin Film That Adolf Hitler Watched Twice
Far Out Magazine ^ | FRI 20TH MAY 2022 | Swapnil Dhruv Bose

Posted on 05/20/2022 7:30:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 05/20/2022 7:30:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
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.

No. He was a message runner in the List Regiment for most of the war.

2 posted on 05/20/2022 7:35:56 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 17th Miss Regt

He had lung damage from encountering mustard gas during his service in WW1, sounds like experiencing war to me.


3 posted on 05/20/2022 7:41:34 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: 17th Miss Regt

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.


4 posted on 05/20/2022 7:42:08 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: 17th Miss Regt

And won an iron cross.


5 posted on 05/20/2022 7:42:40 PM PDT by dynachrome (“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the US economy.” Rand Paul)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

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”.


6 posted on 05/20/2022 7:46:24 PM PDT by lee martell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Leaning Right

Yep, Hitler was up at the front for much of WW1.


7 posted on 05/20/2022 7:46:30 PM PDT by glorgau
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 17th Miss Regt
The Great Dictator globe scene
8 posted on 05/20/2022 7:47:40 PM PDT by D Rider ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: 17th Miss Regt; nickcarraway
""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.""

"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

9 posted on 05/20/2022 7:47:44 PM PDT by Dogbert41 (Blessed are the peace makers.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

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.


10 posted on 05/20/2022 7:49:29 PM PDT by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lee martell

Chaplin was also a communist


11 posted on 05/20/2022 7:52:36 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Nifster

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.


12 posted on 05/20/2022 7:56:15 PM PDT by lee martell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Wilhelm Tell

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


13 posted on 05/20/2022 7:59:11 PM PDT by TECTopcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Wilhelm Tell

People like Hitler are so used to being ridiculed they honestly don’t care.


14 posted on 05/20/2022 8:05:55 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross/ Second Class.


15 posted on 05/20/2022 10:53:03 PM PDT by jmacusa (America. Founded by geniuses. Now governed by idiots. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Dogbert41
I think Google got it wrong.

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.

16 posted on 05/20/2022 11:00:59 PM PDT by jmacusa (America. Founded by geniuses. Now governed by idiots. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: jmacusa

Good observation. It may have been historically awarded after he rose to power.


17 posted on 05/21/2022 5:02:45 PM PDT by Dogbert41 (Blessed are the peace makers.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

If Hitler watched American war films then he should have noticed that he would be defeated.


18 posted on 05/21/2022 8:37:14 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dogbert41
No. The German High Command and decades long tradition and reverence for “Die Ritterkreutz’’, “The Iron Cross’’ not even the Fuhrer himself would have warranted it or allowed it.

Hitler was a military dilettante and an outright idiot at strategy at times but he did have reverence for it's insignia and trappings.

19 posted on 05/21/2022 11:46:48 PM PDT by jmacusa (America. Founded by geniuses. Now governed by idiots. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: lee martell

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.


20 posted on 05/23/2022 8:23:19 AM PDT by lowbridge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson