The Great Dictator 1940

Bosley Crowther, New York Times: Now that the waiting is over and the shivers of suspense at an end, let the trumpets be sounded and the banners flung against the sky. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: Chaplin is at his most profound in suggesting that there is much of the Tramp in the Dictator, and much of the Dictator in the Tramp. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: The first full-blown talkie from the biggest star of the silent era, complete with a message that Chaplin couldn't have sent more loudly or clearly. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is a funny film, which we expect from Chaplin, and a brave one. Read more

TIME Magazine: Through no fault of Chaplin's, during the two years he was at work on the picture dictators became too sinister for comedy. Read more

Time Out: The representation of Hitler is vaudeville goonery all the way, but minus the acid wit and inventive energy that Groucho Marx managed. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: It's when he is playing the dictator that the comedian's voice raises the value of the comedy content of the picture to great heights. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Like all major Chaplin works, Dictator was a cheaply, but methodically, made film, a cardboard act of humanist defiance, and, thanks to its purity of purpose, the cheesier the jokes get, the harder they land. Read more