MovieChat Forums > Monsieur Verdoux (1947) Discussion > Chaplin's most underrated film

Chaplin's most underrated film

posted 9 years ago by kylopod
4 replies | jump to latest

Even though I was born in the late '70s, I was raised on Chaplin. My parents rented videos of his films for me to watch when I was a small child, and to this day he remains one of my favorite filmmakers. But one film of his they didn't show me was Monsieur Verdoux, thinking it too dark. When I finally got around to watching it as an adult, I loved it, and I consider it among his greatest works. This seems to be a minority opinion, but it had a lot of things going against it. It was the first film where he completely left his Tramp persona behind and looked almost unrecognizably different. And I'm pretty sure 1940s audiences weren't exactly prepared for a comedy about a serial killer. Sure, there was Arsenic & Old Lace--itself a very funny film--but there at least the protagonist was a sympathetic character. MV features a blatant anti-hero murderer as its lead; it was sort of the American Psycho of its time.

Part of the joy of the film is how morbidly fascinating this character is, the double life he lives and his weird, twisted sense of morality, his cynical view of humanity. It has some great scenes, including the one involving the young woman (who I think was supposed to be a prostitute) he tries to use as a guinea pig for one of his twisted experiments. The movie also features some great comedy work by Martha Raye (a rare instance when Chaplin, control freak that he was, allowed one of his costars to upstage him). And the movie's ending seemed to expand on the premise in unexpected ways, raising it from black comedy to something more significant. It's a truly fine picture that I wish got more recognition.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bradjanet 8 years ago

Certainly one of his best.

But you ARE Blanche ... and I AM.

[–] JonnyMo 7 years ago

Very much a film ahead of its time, balancing comedy with darker content. There is some great dialogue here as well. I think it's obvious that Chaplin's personal problems, including a paternity suit years earlier, and his suspected communist leanings hurt the film in the United States at the time. But the subject matter, which criticized war and capitalism, also had an impact as they were cause for censorship under the production code of the time. All these factors, added to the fact that his recognizable Tramp character was nowhere to be seen, meant that the film got little press to help promote it. Heck, certain states banned it.

But, years later, when Chaplin published his autobiography, he re-released many of his films, and reaction to Monsieur Verdoux was quite good. Sometimes it's just a question of timing

'I've learned that life is one crushing defeat after another until you just wish Flanders was dead'

[–] Ace_Spade (9337) 4 years ago

While I agree that this is an underrated film, I'm not sure it's better than a lot of Chaplin's other output. The Kid is more affecting.

What is brilliant about this movie is the twist where the girl winds up wealthy on the buck of an arms dealer and M. Verdoux delivers that cutting speech at the trial. "I am an amateur". Chilling stuff for an otherwise comic film (albeit a cynical and dark comedy).