with the nazi rise to power in eastern europe in the late 1930 and charles chaplin turn his attention to create a reaction to it . the catalyst may well have be a propaganda publication refer to chaplin a a jewish sympathizer . in the great dictator and chaplin create a dead on parody of hitler that be as funny a it be frighten at time . the film trace hitler experience in the german army from world war i up to the present day . simultaneously and chaplin play a jewish barber who dress like the tramp who come out of a hospital after a long long time and only to discover how different the world be under nazi rule . paulette goddard and chaplin wife at the time and play a young jewish girl whose family be oppress in a jewish ghetto . jack oakie have a great and oscar nominate support role a a mussolini look alike ( benzini napaloni ) who give chaplin hitler character and adenoid hynkel and a lot of fit . henry daniell be his usual staid self a garbitsch and chief adviser to adenoid hynkel . chaplin write and direct the film and receive oscar nomination for his screenplay and his acting . the film be also nominate for best picture . chaplin make the film under tremendous pressure for some obvious reason and some not so well know . he finance the entire film himself at great risk because of the subject matter and and there be no other major film make regard nazi germany up to that time . the film spend about twenty one month in production with chaplin even rebuild a set and re shoot a scene to get thing right . by the time of the film release in october of 1940 and the war in europe be well under way with hitler conquer one country after another and so the film become much more topical at it release than when production first begin . there isn not much plot in look at the film in retrospect while the film seem more like a series of comedy sketch and or or mishap string together to get to a purpose independent of the film itself . several example of this occur in the last third of the film with the meeting between hynkel and napaloni . the scene be very very funny and but it lead no where in term of the plot . likewise and the escape of both the barber and schultz simply lead to the mistaken identity of the barber for hynkel in order to give chaplin ( through the barber character ) an opportunity to pontificate to the audience at the end of the film . on the other hand and what good way to make a point about the misplaced narcissism of aryan superiority than to have a jewish barber mistake for hynkel . still and the film contain many high comic moment and such a the rally speech and the new war development ( bulletproof uniform and etc . ) and the dancing globe scene and the coin in the pudding scene and and the entire scenario between hynkel and napaloni ( include the barber chair scene ) to highly recommend the film . one can also not forget the risk chaplin take in make his first talk film and an anti nazi film and and finance the film himself . half of 4 star .