Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
Director: Charles Chaplin
Starring: Charles Chaplin, Martha Raye
Honors:
It had been seven years and numerous tabloid controversies
since audiences had seen a new Charlie Chaplin picture. The famed filmmaker and
the most influential comedic entertainer of the silent era had turned his
professional attention to sharing his thoughts on sociological affairs, a
drastic turn from his simpler days as The Tramp. Here Chaplin brings to
audiences a darker comedy which he uses as yet another soapbox to impart his message
of peace. Completely devoid of any Tramp-like characteristics along with its
direct liberal message in a far more conservative time, this film, its plot
inspired by true events, is a clever comedy that was doomed to fail.
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| Chaplin and Martha Raye |
Monsieur Verdoux
is a dark comedy about a French gentleman who charms wealthy widows in order to
murder and collect their fortunes. The film opens on a family anxious about a
fellow family member named Thelma, who quickly and mysteriously married a man
by the name of “Varnay,” then suddenly disappears with her bank account cleared
out, suspecting this mystery man a crook. This is when we are introduced to Henri
Verdoux (Chaplin), former bank teller laid off who found a creative way of
supporting his wheelchair bound wife and son, by moonlighting under several
aliases to woo wealthy widows into marrying him, at which he would murder the
unsuspecting ladies and collect on their estates. His devious plans become
comedic as his relationship with one of his purposed victims, the loud and
boisterous Annabelle (Martha Raye), proves to be too difficult to slay out of
dumb luck. Furthermore his relationship to Annabelle spills over into his
hopeful wealthiest pursuit in Maria Grosnay (Isobel Elsom), as she appears at
as a guest at the purposed wedding, leading him to running away before being
caught.
In the end Verdoux cannot continue like this, losing
everything, his money and even his family before allowing himself to be
arrested for his crimes. At his conviction Verdoux, with upmost gentlemanly
manner, makes known his feelings on the matter of murder in the world he is
living in. Before being ushered to his execution he answers to reporters with
questioning how his few killings make him a criminal, while those that design
weapons for mass murder for war are hailed as heroes. With a justified demeanor
Veroux accepts his fate.
It is a peculiar motion picture that is dark and fascinating
at first before turning into a morbid comedy of attempted murder. Ultimately the
film serves as Chaplin’s self-constructed pulpit to share his thoughts of war, his
disagreement with the world’s perception on it, while preaching a message of
peace. The film really goes several different directions which helps and
hinders it in many ways.
It is unique to see Chaplin, once the king of the silent comedy,
take on a dark subject. Initially he does so in a dramatic earnest manner
before turning it into a series of Chaplin-style comedic sequences that evoke
his earlier style. The comedy is humorous and harkens to what audiences loved
of his prior work, but can be considered jarring to the overall flow of the
initial stage so the picture, depending on how engrossed one is in the plot. The
feature’s conclusion becomes a preachy moral that is clearly Charles Chaplin talking
directly to the audience, teaching a message worth listening too, but feels out
of place in context of the movie and polarizing audiences. On a whole the
picture is strong, but its ending would be the film and its filmmaker’s
undoing.
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| Chaplin and Marylin Nash |
Monsieur Verdoux
is first and foremost a Charles Chaplin picture, and it makes no qualms about
it. Chaplin is the director, producer, star, composer, and editor. The entire
structure of the production is based solely around his appearing on the screen.
His numerous female associates play merely as pawns to his performance with
only a couple of exceptions to stand out. Martha Raye provides wonderful comedy
as the loud and troublesome Annabelle, bringing her years of comedic acting to the
film’s second most utilized role in the feature. The most touching character in
the picture comes from Chaplin discovery Marylin Nash, who portrays a young
lady whose sincere core for others sways Verdoux from attempting to make her a
victim. Her nameless character stir within him a sparks of faith in the
humanity he is systematically hunting down for his own gain. Like Nash most of
the remaining female cast features no name actresses, so to never outshine the
film’s star.
With this picture it is evident that Chaplin’s filmmaking
style has evolved very little since his heydays of the silent era, this being
only is second “true” talking picture. His camera work is predominately static
with most scenes with extensive dialogue playing out similar to a stage play with
the camera affixed to one side of the set. For his more comedic scenes the
delivery and editing smack of the classic Chaplin style, which remains
entertaining as ever, even refreshing with nostalgia for his classic work.
However, much of the picture feels outdated as the filmmaker had not been able
to progress beyond the film language of his silent days. Even the opening
credits somehow feel like a silent movie, Despite this perception really not
mattering at all, somehow it just feels as if Chaplins was stuck in his own
time despite all the other cinematic examples he had to be familiar with since
the days where he ruled Hollywood.
Monsieur Verdoux
marks the first time Chaplin had produced a picture that did not feature the
Tramp character. Albeit The Great
Dictator did not officially feature the character of “The Tramp,” the
character known as The Jewish Barber did embody all the attributes that The
Tramp was known for from the toothbrush mustache and bowler hat to his peculiar
walking style and cane. Here Chaplin is a unique character, a swindler of dervish
intent that is suave and gentlemanly to mask his ugliness.
From the perspective of the audience, this was their first
look at Chaplin in seven years. Previously Chaplin was last seen the year
before America joined World War II in the close of The Great Dictator talking directly to the camera pleading the
world to not go to war with Hitler, causing himself controversy. Since then
Pearl Harbor was attacked, US joined the war, the atomic bomb was created and
used, and the United States came out of the conflict one of the world’s superpowers
with eyes on affixed on the threat of foreign communism infiltrating “American
values.” In that time Chaplin became a name attached to controversy, including
a legal battle over childcare with a woman he had an affair with, and subsequent
1943 marriage his fourth wife who was only 18 years old compared to his far
more senior age of 54. With the 1940s Chaplin was a name that was more common
with a term of controversy than filmmaking.
The production of Monsieur
Verdoux was several years in the making, with Chaplin stating his trails
kept him from creative endeavors. The project’s origin came from Olson Welles
who was interested in producing a film based on story of French serial killer
Henri Désire Landru with Chaplin as the star. Chaplin was not interested in
working under any other director, but propositioned Welles to purchase the
story from him with the idea to turn the gloomy story into a comedy. Desperate
for income since being nearly run out of Hollywood, the director of Citizen Kane sold his story to Chaplin
for low price of $5000 and screen credit. In time Welles would attempt to
disassociate himself from the production, claiming how little he had to do with
Chaplin’s final version of the film.
This brings up a wonderful question of what the film would
have been like if Olson Welles was able to produce the picture he wanted with
himself as director and Charles Chaplin as star. Welles saw Chaplin one of
cinema history’s greatest acting minds, but a poor director. Chaplin still
delivered a great performance, but imagine what it would have been like with
the mind behind Citizen Kane creating
the script and the visuals, devoid of Chaplin’s preachy ending. Chalk this up
to one of cinema’s great “what if’s?”
Upon release Chaplin was booed at his own premiere, taking flak
from critics and audiences alike for his political views. Sine before WWII the
FBI had internally questioned Chaplin’s possible communist sympathies due to
his outspokenness on matters, and now following the war the seemly
anti-capitalist filmmaker would be major target of the agency with the rise of
the Cold War. Monsieur Verdoux was a
massive flop for the filmmaker domestically, finding better acceptance internationally.
Patches of praise would be bestowed on the film, one in the form of a Best
Screenplay nomination at the Academy Awards as well a surprising victory as
Best Film by the National Board of Review.
The Great Dictator
was a masterpiece that brought Chaplin a great deal of controversy for its day,
but Monsieur Verdoux would cement him
has a politically controversial figure in the mid-century for the United States officials, despite his
peaceful message, leading to his essential banishment from the United States.
This picture was a manifestation of his continual appeal to the masses years
after his prime, and how his political views would bring him down. Chaplin was
just a filmmaker with peaceful ideals he wanted to share, but sadly his way of
sharing them would hurt himself as they came at a poor time in a poor manner.
It is a good picture, but in the budding days of the Cold War, it would make
him a rogue in his adopted country.
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