Two little Hitlers

The Great Dictator

(1940)

OK, let's cuts CC some slack: when he made the film, some of his countrymen and some of mine were still kissing Aryan ass; it's a film that had to be made.

That said . . . it's just really not very damned good. A few comic bits work: the famous globe-balloon ballet and the Brahms shave that follows, for example, and the coin-in-the-pudding bit, but most of the comedy falls flat (all the Napaloni stuff is just annoying ethnic shtick, e.g.--being on the right side doesn't excuse it and sure as hell doesn't make it funny), and with the exception of a line or two of the climactic radio address, all the serious stuff is just molasses. Yes, yes, I know: but good politics doesn't redeem bad art, no matter how good the politics is.