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The Great Dictator
Directed by
Charlie Chaplin
Not Rated
1940
2h 5m
Comedy
,
Drama
,
and more
8.4
92%
95%
Add to Watchlist
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
More
Where to Watch The Great Dictator
Kanopy
Free
Criterion Channel
Subscription
HBO Max
Subscription
+5 more
Cast of The Great Dictator
Charlie Chaplin
Adenoid Hynkel, Dictator of Tomania / A Jewish Barber / Director / Writer / Producer
Paulette Goddard
Hannah
Jack Oakie
Benzino Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria
Reginald Gardiner
Commander Schultz
Henry Daniell
Garbitsch
Billy Gilbert
Field Marshal Herring
Grace Hayle
Madame Napaloni
Carter DeHaven
Spook
Maurice Moscovitch
Mr. Jaeckel
Emma Dunn
Mrs. Jaeckel
Bernard Gorcey
Mr. Mann
Paul Weigel
Mr. Agar
Chester Conklin
Barber's Customer
Esther Michelson
Jewish Woman
Hank Mann
Storm Trooper Stealing Fruit
Florence Wright
Blonde Secretary
Eddie Gribbon
Tomanian Storm Trooper
Rudolph Anders
Tomanian Commandant at Osterlich / Robert O. Davis
Eddie Dunn
Whitewashed Storm Trooper
Nita Pike
Secretary
George Lynn
Commander of Storm Troopers
Wheeler Dryden
Heinrich Schtick / Translator (voice)
Fred Aldrich
Soldier (uncredited)
Richard Alexander
Tomainian Prison Guard in 1918 (uncredited)
Sig Arno
Compact Parachute Inventor (uncredited)
William Arnold
Tomanian Officer (uncredited)
Joe Bordeaux
Ghetto Extra (uncredited)
Don Brodie
Reporter from International Press (uncredited)
Gino Corrado
Sculptor (uncredited)
John Davidson
Hospital Superintendent (uncredited)
Max Davidson
Jewish Man (uncredited)
Lew Davis
Hospital Orderly (uncredited)
Pat Flaherty
Friendly Storm Trooper (uncredited)
Bud Geary
Storm Trooper (uncredited)
Sam Harris
Officer (uncredited)
Eddie Hart
Policeman (uncredited)
Leyland Hodgson
Big Bertha Gunnery Officer (uncredited)
William Irving
Man Seated on Bed (uncredited)
Charles Irwin
Banquet Butler (uncredited)
Ethelreda Leopold
Blonde Secretary (uncredited)
Torben Meyer
Bald Barbershop Customer (uncredited)
Bert Moorhouse
Hynkel's Staff Officer (uncredited)
Nellie V. Nichols
Jewish Woman (uncredited)
Manuel París
Dance Extra at Ball (uncredited)
Jack Perrin
Jewish Man (uncredited)
Lucien Prival
Storm Trooper Officer (uncredited)
Cyril Ring
Officer Extra (uncredited)
Henry Roquemore
Soldier (uncredited)
Tiny Sandford
Soldier in 1918 Tomainia (uncredited)
Hans Schumm
Soldier (uncredited)
Harry Semels
Jewish Fruit Stand Proprietor (uncredited)
Charles Sullivan
Prison Guard (uncredited)
Carl Voss
Officer (uncredited)
Leo White
Hynkel's Barber (uncredited)
Harry Wilson
Soldier in Field (uncredited)
Hans Conried
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Francis Ernest Drake
Storm Trooper (uncredited)
Francesca Santoro
Aggie (uncredited)
Leonard Walker
Conductor (uncredited)
Finn Zirzow
Soldier (uncredited)
Wyn Ritchie Evans
Woman in Crowd (uncredited)
James Carlisle
Ball Guest (uncredited)
Oliver Cross
Ball Guest (uncredited)
Herschel Graham
Soldier (uncredited)
The Great Dictator Ratings & Reviews
Eric Bakke
January 26, 2025
Hands down, one of the greatest anti-Nazi films ever made. Chaplin’s portrayal of Hynkel (Hitler) is absolutely hilarious—outrageously funny in every scene.
Chicago Reader
Kat Sachs
Chaplin's iconic speech at the end of the film is only too relevant nowadays.
Stream on Demand
Sean Axmaker
... confronts the hatred and anti-Semitism of Hitler's Germany in the days before America's entry into World War II while lampooning the despots responsible.
Backseat Mafia
Rob Aldam
It works wonderfully, but The Great Dictator will perhaps be remembered most fondly for Chaplin's moving closing speech.
Deep Focus Review
Brian Eggert
Chaplin beckons the viewer to recognize and fight against tyrants, and every few years, as another despot comes along, The Great Dictator becomes achingly relevant again.
CineXpress Podcast
Fico Cangiano
Charlie Chaplin's first talkie became an example of an effective satire. One that was way ahead of its time. [Full review Spanish]
Tampa Bay Times
Marion Aitchison
Though The Great Dictator provides a good many laughs [it] merits serious consideration for the superior presentation of the message it is trying to put across to that part of the world where democracy is still a precious possession.
Gone With The Twins
Mike Massie
More than the expected assemblage of skits, the film attempts to tell a grander, straightforward story, but utilizes too many subplots in the process.
Filmsite
Tim Dirks
The Great Dictator (1940) is director/actor Charlie Chaplin's first full all-talking ("talkie" with dialogue) picture (in a film similar to the Marx Brothers' anti-war comedy Duck Soup (1933)) in which he delivered spoken lines...
California Eagle
John Kinloch
The Chaplin masterpiece is a mecca of motion-picture art to which the industry's devout will make repeated pilgrimages in future years.
Solzy at the Movies
Danielle Solzman
The Great Dictator may have been a bold piece of satirical storytelling at the time but the film has aged like fine wine.
Cinema-stache
Rob Vaux
The lessons remain, and the strength of his statement still inspires his descendants - professional or otherwise - to follow his example.
The Nation
Franz Hoellering
The only trouble is that such perfect scenes as this are followed by more conventional passages which would be funny enough in an average picture but let one down in a film that deals so ambitiously with so great a theme.
Film.com
William Goss
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.
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.
Chicago Reader
Dave Kehr
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.
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
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.
Variety
Variety Staff
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.
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
It is a funny film, which we expect from Chaplin, and a brave one.
The Hollywood Reporter
Glenn Abel
The film remains controversial to this day.
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