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7 unusual facts about The Great Dictator


Closed cinemas in Kingston upon Hull

Fortunately the audience on that night, who had been watching Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, had heard the air-raid warning and gathered in the cinema’s foyer; remarkably, the 150 people sheltering escaped with their lives.

King, Queen, Joker

It was included in the 2011 Criterion DVD special two disc edition release of The Great Dictator.

Lasse Gjertsen

Chaplin Snakker is one of his electronic songs, in which the freedom- and awe-inspiring speech of Charlie Chaplin from his movie The Great Dictator (1940) is elevated by the use of music.

Lee Myung-bak rat poster incident

A US-based South Korean artist was arrested for showing a comical portrait of Lee Myung-bak in a Nazi uniform similar to Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.

Monsieur Verdoux

This was the first feature film in which Chaplin's character bore no resemblance to his famous "Tramp" character (The Great Dictator did not feature the Tramp, but his "Jewish barber" bore sufficient similarity), and consequently was poorly received in America when it first premiered.

Schtonk!

The title is a bow to Charlie Chaplin's classic The Great Dictator, in which the Führer repeatedly uses "Schtonk!" as an expression of disgust – the word has no meaning in German but resembles Stunk (pronounced as shtoonk), a colloquial expression for a scuffle or altercation.

Thank You, My Twilight

The song "Biscuit Hammer" contains a reference to The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin's first film to employ spoken dialog.



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