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DVD review of "Monsieur Verdoux", starring Charlie Chaplin, Martha Raye

Editorial Reviews of Monsieur Verdoux, courtesy Amazon.com

This blistering little black comedy was well ahead of its time when released in 1947. Originally, Orson Welles had wanted Chaplin to star in his drama about a French mass murderer named Landru, but Chaplin was hesitant to act for another director, and used the idea himself. He plays a dapper gent named Henri Verdoux (who assumes a number of identities), a civilized monster who marries wealthy women, then murders them (as we meet him, he’s gathering roses as an incinerator ominously bellows smoke in the background) and collects their money to support his real family. The Little Tramp is now a distant memory, though this was the first film not to feature Chaplin’s beloved creation. Verdoux is largely viciously clever until it gets too heavy-handed, as evidenced when a woman he spares returns years later as the mistress of a munitions manufacturer. Ultimately, Chaplin breaks character (much as he did in The Great Dictator ) to preach to the masses, declaring that against the machines of war that grip the planet, humble killer Verdoux is "an amateur by comparison." --David Kronke

Charles Chaplin turns his traditionally sunny sensibilities inside out with this sublime black comedy about a family man who secretly uses murder to support his beloved invalid wife and child. There’s little of the immortal Tramp in Verdoux, yet the fastidious dandy is not lacking in comic graces. Most hilarious of all are the always-foiled attempts to dispatch the raucous Annabella (Martha Raye). When this most atypical Chaplin film opened, the world was not ready to look death in the face and walk away smiling. Today, Monsieur Verdoux ranks among Chaplin’s best works. It is killer comedy.

Funny movie quotes from Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux

Henri Verdoux : Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.
Henri Verdoux : Wars, conflict--it’s all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify!

To the court, after being found guilty of murder.
Henri Verdoux : I shall see you ALL soon--very soon.

Priest : May the Lord have mercy on your soul.

Henri Verdoux : Why not? After all, it belongs to Him.

Henri Verdoux : Business is a ruthless business, my dear.

Trivia about Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux:

Verdoux’s quote "One murder makes a villain; millions a hero" is taken from the abolitionist Bishop Beilby Porteus (1731-1808).

DVD Feautres of Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux

Available subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese (Unspecified)

Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)

Introduction by David Robinson

‘Chaplin Today: Monsieur Verdoux,’ Documentary by Bernard Eisenschitz Plan drawings and preparatory sketches Photo gallery, film posters, and trailers