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Credits

Rated: Unrated; Genre: Comedy; With: Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard
A-
By Steve Daly
Steve Daly
Steve Daly
Steve Daly is a senior writer at EW, and also author of EW.com's Money Shot column

THE GREAT DICTATOR Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard (1940, Image/FoxVideo, $69.98, partial CAV, unrated, B&W) What drove Chaplin to wrap up his burlesque of Nazi Germany with a deadly serious, six-minute, into-the-camera speech imploring mankind to disarm? Misguided passion, that's what-and with this meticulously researched laser package, you can explore how his antifascist fervor nearly inspired him to film a far more maudlin, self-important finale. After the movie itself (here restored to astounding clarity), a still-frame appendix of script outtakes reveals that the specters of Lincoln and Christ were originally to appear in a closing montage-along with goose-stepping storm troopers suddenly dancing and ordering gefilte fish. Chaplin never did come up with a digestible coda, but the disc makes charting the ingredients a gourmet treat. A- -Steve Daly


Posted Apr 30, 1993
 

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