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The Great Dictator ()

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Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
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Writer:
Stars:
Awards:
  • Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 1 nomination.
  • See more »
Reviews:

Photos and Videos

125 photos | 1 video

Cast verified as complete

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Hynkel - Dictator of Tomania / A Jewish Barber
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Napaloni - Dictator of Bacteria
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Schultz
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Garbitsch
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Herring
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Madame Napaloni
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Bacterian Ambassador (as Carter De Haven)
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Hannah
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Mr. Jaeckel (as Maurice Moscovich)
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Mrs. Jaeckel
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Mr. Mann
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Mr. Agar
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Barber's Customer
Esther Michelson ...
Jewish Woman
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Storm Trooper Stealing Fruit
Florence Wright ...
Blonde Secretary
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Tomanian Storm Trooper
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Tomanian Commandant at Osterlich (as Robert O. Davis)
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Whitewashed Storm Trooper
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Secretary
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Commander of Storm Troopers (as Peter Lynn)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
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Heinrich Schtick - Translator (voice)
John Alban ...
Ball Guest (uncredited)
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Soldier (uncredited)
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Tomainian Prison Guard in 1918 (uncredited)
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Compact Parachute Inventor (uncredited)
William Arnold ...
Tomanian Officer (uncredited)
Walter Bacon ...
Storm Trooper (uncredited)
Brandon Beach ...
Doctor (uncredited)
Joe Bordeaux ...
Ghetto Extra (uncredited)
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Soldier (uncredited)
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Reporter from International Press (uncredited)
James Carlisle ...
Ball Guest (uncredited)
Tom Coleman ...
Guard (uncredited)
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Undetermined Role (uncredited)
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Sculptor (uncredited)
Oliver Cross ...
Ball Guest (uncredited)
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Hospital Superintendent (uncredited)
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Jewish Man (uncredited)
Lew Davis ...
Hospital Orderly (uncredited)
Francis Ernest Drake ...
Storm Trooper (uncredited)
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Friendly Storm Trooper (uncredited)
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Storm Trooper (uncredited)
Jack Gordon ...
Soldier (uncredited)
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Soldier (uncredited)
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Officer (uncredited)
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Policeman (uncredited)
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Big Bertha Gunnery Officer (uncredited)
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Man Seated on Bed (uncredited)
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Banquet Butler (uncredited)
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Blonde Secretary (uncredited)
Clyde McLeod ...
Soldier (uncredited)
Russell Meeker ...
Ball Guest (uncredited)
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Bald Barbershop Customer (uncredited)
Jules Michelson ...
Man in Ghetto (uncredited)
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Hynkel's Staff Officer (uncredited)
George Nardelli ...
Soldier (uncredited)
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Jewish Woman (uncredited)
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Ball Guest (uncredited)
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Jewish Man (uncredited)
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Servant (uncredited)
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Storm Trooper Officer (uncredited)
John Rice ...
Storm Trooper (uncredited)
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Officer Extra (uncredited)
Wyn Ritchie Evans ...
Woman in Crowd (uncredited)
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Soldier (uncredited)
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Soldier in 1918 Tomainia (uncredited)
Francesca Santoro ...
Aggie (uncredited)
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Soldier (uncredited)
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Jewish Fruit Stand Proprietor (uncredited)
Count Stefenelli ...
Ball Guest (uncredited)
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Guard (uncredited)
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Prison Guard (uncredited)
Carl Voss ...
Officer (uncredited)
Leonard Walker ...
Conductor (uncredited)
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Hynkel's Barber (uncredited)
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Soldier in Field (uncredited)

Directed by

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Charles Chaplin

Written by

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Charles Chaplin ... (written by)

Produced by

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Charles Chaplin ... producer (uncredited)
Carter DeHaven ... associate producer (uncredited)

Music by

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Charles Chaplin ... (uncredited)
Meredith Willson ... (uncredited)

Cinematography by

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Karl Struss ... director of photography
Roland Totheroh ... director of photography

Editing by

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Willard Nico ... film editor
Harold Rice ... (uncredited)

Art Direction by

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J. Russell Spencer

Set Decoration by

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Edward G. Boyle ... (uncredited)

Makeup Department

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Ed Voight ... makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management

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Alfred Reeves ... production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

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Wheeler Dryden ... assistant director
Daniel James ... assistant director
Robert Meltzer ... assistant director (as Bob Meltzer)
Alex Finlayson ... assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department

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William Bogdanoff ... construction foreman (uncredited)
Dick Fritsch ... assistant art director (uncredited)
Eric Rohman ... poster artist : Sweden (uncredited)
Frank Veseley ... painter (uncredited)
Clem Widrig ... props (uncredited)

Sound Department

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Glenn Rominger ... sound
Percy Townsend ... sound

Special Effects by

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Ralph Hammeras ... special effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by

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Jack Cosgrove ... special photographic effects (uncredited)

Stunts

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Buster Wiles ... stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department

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Frank Testera ... chief electrician (uncredited)
William Wallace ... still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department

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Eugene Joseff ... costume jeweller (uncredited)
Winifred Ritchie ... costumer (uncredited)
Ted Tetrick ... costume supervisor (uncredited)

Music Department

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Meredith Willson ... musical director
Carmen Dragon ... orchestrator (uncredited)
Louis Kaufman ... musician: violin (uncredited)
Al Kaye ... music librarian (uncredited)
Max Terr ... assistant musical director (uncredited) / orchestrator (uncredited)
Meredith Willson ... conductor (uncredited) / music arranger (uncredited)

Script and Continuity Department

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Evelyn Earle ... script clerk (uncredited)

Additional Crew

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Henry Bergman ... general assistant (uncredited)
Rollin Brown ... laboratory contact (uncredited)
Kay Clement ... secretary (uncredited)
Monroe Greenthal ... press representative (uncredited)
Moody ... dailies projectionist (uncredited)
Kathleen Pryor ... secretary (uncredited)
Eugene Testera ... filing clerk (uncredited)
Carl Voss ... military advisor (uncredited)
Oscar Wright ... purchasing (uncredited)
Crew verified as complete

Production Companies

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Distributors

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Special Effects

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Other Companies

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Storyline

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Plot Summary

20 years after the end of WWI, in which the nation of Tomainia was on the losing side, Adenoid Hynkel has risen to power as the ruthless dictator of the country. He believes in a pure Aryan state and the decimation of the Jews. This situation is unknown to a simple Jewish Tomainian barber who has been hospitalized since a WWI battle. Upon his release the barber, who had been suffering from memory loss about the war, is shown the new persecuted life of the Jews by many living in the Jewish ghetto, including a washerwoman named Hannah with whom he begins a relationship. The barber is ultimately spared such persecution by Commander Schultz, whom he saved in that WWI battle. The lives of all Jews in Tomainia are eventually spared with a policy shift by Hynkel himself, who is doing so for ulterior motives. But those motives include a desire for world domination, starting with the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, which may be threatened by Benzino Napaloni, the dictator of neighboring Bacteria. Ultimately Schultz, who has turned traitor against Hynkel's regime, and the barber may be able to join forces to take control of the situation, using Schultz's inside knowledge of the regime's workings and the barber's uncanny resemblance to one of those in power. Written by Huggo

Plot Keywords
Taglines The Comedy Masterpiece! See more »
Genres
Parents Guide View content advisory »
Certification

Additional Details

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Also Known As
  • The Dictator (United States)
  • Le dictateur (France)
  • Der große Diktator (Germany)
  • El gran dictador (Spain)
  • 大独裁者 (China, Mandarin title)
  • See more »
Runtime
  • 125 min
Official Sites
Country
Language
Color
Aspect Ratio
Sound Mix
Filming Locations

Box Office

Budget $2,000,000 (estimated)

Did You Know?

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Trivia Adolf Hitler banned the film in Germany and in all countries occupied by the Nazis. Curiosity however got the best of him and he had a print brought in through Portugal. History records that he screened it twice, in private, but not his reaction to the film. Sir Charles Chaplin said, "I'd give anything to know what he thought of it." For political reasons in Germany, the ban stayed after the end of WWII until 1958. See more »
Goofs (at around 35 mins) When the Barber is chased in the Ghetto streets by Stormtroopers, one California studio building can be seen in the upper right corner of the frame. See more »
Movie Connections Edited into Amérique, notre histoire (2006). See more »
Soundtracks Hungarian Dance No. 5 See more »
Crazy Credits The film is obviously a satire on Adolf Hitler, represented by Adenoid Hynkel, and its story is based on Hynkel looking exactly like "a Jewish barber": both are played by Charles Chaplin. But it begins with a notice: "Any resemblance between Hynkel the dictator and the Jewish barber is purely co-incidental". See more »
Quotes [last lines]
A Jewish Barber: I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite! Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up Hannah! The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light! We are coming into a new world; a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed, and brutality. Look up, Hannah! The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow! Into the light of hope, into the future! The glorious future, that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up!
Mr. Jaeckel: Hannah, did you hear that?
Hannah: Listen...
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