The Great Dictator 1939 1941 next previous
The Great Dictator Clippings 69/369
Elmer Sunfield, Hollywood, New York, March 1940.
He turns property man with Clem Widrig (far left) –
Charles Chaplin, The Great Dictator Set.
(...) Photo, Photoplay, Dec. 1940
& Merna Kennedy, Harry Crocker (Rex, King of the High Wire),
Charles Chaplin, The Circus Scene, 1928
& IMPROMPTU – Grace Hayle had all she could do the other
day to keep a straight face, for each time the „Dictator“
Charlie Chaplin played a scene with her in a colorful ballroom
set, he added another bit of ad lib comedy which broke
up Henry Daniel, Rosemary Theby, Nita Pike, Marion Weldon,
Diane Marshall, Ben Lasky, Carli Elinore, Manny
Harmon and many more. Chaplin, in a handsome gray tunic,
sparkling with decorations and blue trousers, is so
active when on the set that Still Man Bill Wallace relies
on a candid camera rather than a portrait camera.
Charlie‘s faith in his picture evidences itself in his gaiety
between scenes, keeping Betty Chaplin, Sid Chaplin,
Danny James, Henry Bergman and others in gales of laughter
with pantomic byplays upon the scenes he has just
completed.
(...) Behind the Makeup (Registered U. S. Patent Office)
By Harry Crocker, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, Cal.,
Feb. 1, 1940
& Charlie Chaplin is so engaged in his new comedy about
dictators, they say, that cost means nothing to him.
The other day, he thought of some funny lines and went
around telling various extras to speak them in the
next scene.
An assistant followed him around telling the people:
„Forget it, don‘t say them.“
The reason, of course, being this: If the lines had
been spoken, the extras‘ checks would have jumped from
$8.25 to $25 a day.
(...) Behind the Scenes in HOLLYWOOD By HARRISON
CARROLL King Features Syndicate Writer,
Daily Journal, Vineland, New Jersey, Feb. 5, 1940
& . . . King Vidor, who is the only outsider to see
a rough draft of Chaplin‘s almost completed „Dictator,“ tells
me that the picture is the best thing Charlie has
ever done. I just can‘t wait to see it.
(...) HOLLYWOOD TODAY By SHEILAH GRAHAM
(Released By North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.),
Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa., Feb. 27, 1940
& Thomas Nord Riley, who wrote the delightful story
on page 30 about Hollywood‘s favorite villain, Brian Donlevy,
is preparing a searching analysis of Marlene Dietrich
in her new role of roustabout heroine, and we, ourselves, hope
to get some definite information about „The Dictator.“
All we know now, is that Charlie Chaplin hopes to spend
at least three months more on the filming and that
he will play not two, but three roles . . . himself, a refugee
who is mistaken for a dictator and the dictator, too.
Reginald Gardiner . . . you know, the man who imitates
wall-paper . . . plays a pompous field-marshal, and
we hope he has a chance to imitate a field, or something.
And we are very much in hope that we shall have
a chance to see Jack Oakie playing a rival dictator. That fires
the imagination!
(...) THE SHOW GOES ON By THE EDITOR (Llewellyn
Miller), Hollywood, April 1940
„By everybody on the set“
Editorial content. „HOLLYWOOD NEWSREEL
BY ELMER SUNFIELD
All we know about The Dictator is what we have gleaned
from a prop boy. The prop boy says that he‘s laughed
so hard and so long during the shooting that he‘s gained
10 pounds.
The story of The Dictator, so my prop boy says, is a sort
of ,split-in-two plot‘ affair. One story tells about what
goes on in the imaginary world of a dictator – his government,
his palace, and his kingdom. The other story deals
with a smaller world – a ghetto in which live peace-loving,
law-abiding workers who ask that they be allowed
to go their happy ways in peace and quiet. A curious
resemblance between the dictator and a resident
of the ghetto then leads to a story involving both worlds.
Charlie Chaplin, says the prop boy, is always
called ,Charlie‘ by everybody on the set when he is in the role
of Charlie. But when he assumes the robes of the dictator,
everybody calls him Mr. Chaplin. There seems to be something
in those dictatorial trappings – the sword, the epaulettes,
the cap and so on, that changes Chaplin completely. Even his
voice changes, says the prop boy. The sets are far from
lavish. Such old-time comedy favorites as Chester Conklin,
Eddie Gribbon, and Hank Mann are in the cast. Paulette
Goddard is the leading lady.“
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The Great Dictator 1939 1941 next previous
