Monsieur Verdoux
Monsieur Verdoux • 2h 4m
Directed by Charles Chaplin • 1947 • United States
Starring Charles Chaplin, Mady Correll
Charlie Chaplin plays shockingly against type in his most controversial film, a brilliant and bleak black comedy about money, marriage, and murder. Chaplin is a twentieth-century bluebeard, an enigmatic family man who goes to extreme lengths to support his wife and child, attempting to bump off a series of wealthy widows (including one played by the indefatigable Martha Raye, in a hilarious performance). This deeply philosophical and wildly entertaining film is a work of true sophistication, both for the moral questions it dares to ask and for the way it deconstructs its megastar’s lovable on-screen persona.
Up Next in Monsieur Verdoux
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Chaplin Today: MONSIEUR VERDOUX
This documentary, directed by Bernard Eisenschitz in 2003, looks at the political and personal turmoil in Charlie Chaplin’s life at the time of MONSIEUR VERDOUX, along with his bold direction of the film, and features observations by filmmaker Claude Chabrol and actor Norman Lloyd.
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Charlie Chaplin and the American Press
In this 2012 program, Kate Guyonvarch, director of the Chaplin company Roy Export, and Charles Maland, author of “Chaplin and American Culture,” review the coverage of Charlie Chaplin in the American press over some sixty years, and discuss how the timing of MONSIEUR VERDOUX represented a particu...
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Marilyn Nash on MONSIEUR VERDOUX
In 1997, Marilyn Nash, who made her screen debut in the role of the girl in MONSIEUR VERDOUX, was interviewed by Charlie Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance about her life and her experiences working with Chaplin. Presented here are audio excerpts from that interview, illustrated with photographs an...
