The Great Dictator noted Chaplin's use of Wagner's "Lohengrin" prelude when Hynckel dances with the globe-balloon. Chaplin repeated use of the "Lohengrin" prelude near the conclusion, when the exiled Hannah listens to the Jewish barber's speech celebrating democracy and freedom. The music is interrupted during the dictator's dance but it is heard to complete and climax in the barber's pro-democracy speech. Commenting on this, Lutz Peter Koepnick writes in 2002, Chaplin's film was released nine months after Hollywood's first parody of Hitler, the short subject "You Nazty Spy!" by the Three Stooges, which premiered in January 1940. Chaplin had been planning his feature-length
Roman dictator doubt the authenticity of these "dictator years". Initially a dictator's power was not subject to either "provocatio", the right to appeal from the decision of a magistrate, or "intercessio", the veto of the tribunes of the plebs. However, the "lex Valeria", establishing the right of appeal, was not abrogated by the appointment of a dictator, and by 300 BC even the dictator was subject to "provocatio", at least within the city of Rome. There is also evidence that the power of the plebeian tribunes was not vitiated by the dictator's commands, and 210 BC, the tribunes threatened to prevent elections