adenoid hynkel and a lowly soldier in world war one and rise in subsequent year to become the ruthless dictator of toumania . he create an aggressive and antisemitic war machine and cultivate a little toothbrush moustache . sound like anyone you know . from the safety of hollywood and chaplin use this soapbox to exhort europe to take up arm and defy hitler and mussolini . give that the united state in 1940 have more than a year of neutrality ahead of it and and no strong desire to embroil itself in europe civil strife ( remember and it be hitler who declare war on the usa and not the other way round ) it be surprising that chaplin be allow to distribute this immoderate polemic . the story involve on the one hand the the vulgar and repellant hynkel and the reign of terror over which he ineptly preside and and life in the jewish ghetto where every single person be friendly and humane and brave and etc . and etc and chaplin be hynkel and and he also play the jewish barber and the little hero of the ghetto ( the tramp in all but name ) . needless to say and chaplin writes and directs and star and compose the music and do the catering . in 1940 the full truth be not yet know about the third reich and and chaplin can be forgive for have something less than perfect historical foresight and but even by the standard of the day he get hitler badly wrong . a comedian and a sentimentalist and chaplin try to ridicule hitler by make hynkel silly and hapless . all this do be to humanise him . when hynkel the not very warlike soldier fool around with the big gun and the upside down aeroplane and he become endear rather than despicable . a dictator and he inspect his subordinate technical innovation which do not work ( the parachute hat and the bulletproof uniform etc . ) and these passage be mean to make u think that the real life nazi be incompetent and can be sweep aside . in fact and hynkel regime be make cute and likeable by it bumbling bodgery . in truth and chaplin day have already pass when he make this ill consider polemic . at heart and he be still a dinosaur of the silent screen ( check out the humour and with gag like stagger up and down the street semi conscious and or the pantomime of the coin in the pudding ) . the hero schultz be mean to represent a yardstick of european decency against which hynkel can be judge and but schultz look more like a character from operetta than a nazi . be it in any way believable that a schultz figure ( if such have exist ) would say to the fuehrer face and your cause be doom to failure because it build upon the stupid and ruthless persecution of innocent people . and how do schultz come to be in the cellar of the jewish ghetto . if he be the object of an exhaustive manhunt and why do he persist in wear his ruritanian uniform . chaplin do not yet know the full horror of auschwitz birkenau or treblinka and but the nazi concentration camp which he offer u be hopelessly out of kilter with the grim spirit of the age . a usual and chaplin think in term of ilent comedy set piece and loosely peg onto the narrative clothes line . there be the knockabout scrap with the stormtroopers and shave a man to the accompaniment of brahms and and the globe ballet ( watch for the segment film in reverse ) . paulette goddard be the unremittingly perfect hannah . just a the people of the ghetto be impossibly nice and and the jewish haven in osterlich be ridiculously idyllic and so hannah be quite literally too good to be true . brave and defiant and resourceful and hardworking and ( of course ) beautiful and she be the canary of judaism in the ghetto cage . gee and ain not i cute . she ask and after the barber give her a make over . too cute by far and be the answer . she doesn not come close to ring true and because chaplin have make her a caricature . the wouldn not it be wonderful . speech which chaplin put into her mouth be typical of the author too wordy and too emotionally cloy . jack oakie be great a napaloni and the fascist dictator of bacteria . he bring a whiff of much need comic brio to the proceeding and but the film underlie weakness remain . if napaloni be silly and ineffective and how can we fear him . and anyway and the stutter stop start of the back project train be a fine chaplinesque example of a gag that be persist with far beyond it comic worth . and where do the jewish barber acquire that immaculate hynkel uniform .