"Monsieur Verdoux" **** (out of ****)Charlie Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947) is a killer comedy.
By the time Chaplin released this dark, rich, cynical comedy the silent era ended 18 years earlier. However, this was Chaplin's second full fledged talking movie. He no longer played his lovable downtrodden man of the people, The Tramp. To remove himself completely from that character Chaplin truly takes things in a new direction.
In "Monsieur Verdoux", which the opening credits state was based on an idea by Orson Welles, Chaplin plays the title character, who goes by many aliases, a Bluebeard.
The opening credits described the movie as "a comedy of murders". While that may sound dark, and it is, Chaplin's comedy has always had a hint of darkness to it. Chaplin had a gift for finding the humor in tragedy. The best example is the silent comedy "The Gold Rush" (1925). One of the major themes of that movie is hunger. In a famous scene Chaplin's Tramp is so hungry he resorts to eating his shoe. The scene is played for laughs but the undertone of it is dramatic. Here is a man so hungry he has no other options and must engage in desperate tactics.
Not surprisingly "Monsieur Verdoux" is similar in that the character's motivation for his actions is to provide for his family, so they may never go hungry. Hunger was always an important theme in Chaplin's work due to his own impoverished childhood. Desperate times call for desperate actions.
We learn Monsieur Verdoux worked as a banker. After 30 years of employment, the Great Depression hit. Verdoux was one of the first on the chopping block. For the past ten years he has been married to a paraplegic. The two also have a son. For the past three years Verdoux has led a double life, marrying women, with small amounts of wealth, and killing them. Some he has let live since he has not been able to get his hands on their money. Whatever money Verdoux does get, he invest in the stock market.
This is Chaplin's best attempt to create sympathy for Verdoux. Verdoux doesn't kill for the sport of it. Chaplin even goes as far as to make the wife literally dependent upon him. Who could hate a man like that?
Chaplin also presents Verdoux as a man of sophistication. Even his Tramp character had an air of refinement about himself. In one scene he sits by a piano and plays Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. When we first see Verdoux he is in a garden, pruning. Chaplin plays Verdoux as a soft-spoken, mild manner man. Can this suggest even "good" people are capable of "bad" things? Is Chaplin making a comment on the duality of man?
The movie begins to explore these conflicting thoughts of "good" and "bad" when Verdoux meets a woman who has just been released from jail. She is simply credited as "The Girl" (Marilyn Nash). Verdoux finds her standing in the rain and offers The Girl shelter by inviting her to his apartment. This is all a pretext as Verdoux really wants to conduct an experiment on her and test out a poison he has created. Before The Girl can unknowingly drink the poison the two engage in a discussion of life and love. Verdoux is bitter about life and emphasizes the bad. The Girl champions the good in life and proclaims life has meaning and speaks of what true love is. These two characters become the conscience of the movie. However, to further illustrate his point, one has to admit, both characters make good arguments. Neither is completely right or wrong.
By the end of the movie one can take the position, what you put out in the world will come back to you. This is presented at two points in the movie. One has Verdoux admonish his son for playing too rough with their cat. Verdoux rhetorically asks where did the boy get such a mean streak. An intended joke given the character asking the question. However, it is what he says next that stands out. He tells the boy to remember violence begets violence.
The other moment comes when Verdoux, now much older, runs into The Girl, who's fortune has changed. She offers to buy Verdoux a meal as a way to repay his kindness to her. It is something she had never forgotten. Here is it not violence that begets violence but kindness that begets kindness.
But Chaplin's true intentions for "Monsieur Verdoux" is to argue the crimes of one man fail in comparison to the actions of nations. Yes, Verdoux killed people but countries have turned murder into business. Bear in mind the movie was released in 1947. World War II was over. Technology played a very big role in the war, especially with the atomic bomb, which was dropped in 1945. There is a lot of money to be made in war and making weapons.
It is definitely a timely message and works alongside the themes of Chaplin's prior movie, "The Great Dictator" (1940) which ends with a plea for peace and warns technology is dividing us (funny how some things never change). But, the parallel between Verdoux's actions and the business of war doesn't flow smoothly to me. The third act of the movie could have used a rewrite. I feel Chaplin is reaching a bit to tie everything together. Maybe the comparison could be made but it doesn't flow as naturally as it should have.
Some of the ideas may be "heavy" but "Monsieur Verdoux" is not without laughs. This is a Charlie Chaplin movie after all. While Chaplin does play a murderer, we never see his Verdoux actually kill anyone. When Verdoux does go in for the kill the camera fades to the next scene after suggesting the fate of his victim. When the camera stays on Verdoux it shows his failed attempts and thus where Chaplin inserts comedy into the story.
The wife we see the most onscreen is Annabella (Martha Raye). She is presented as somewhat dimwitted. A easy-go-lucky woman that enjoys several drinks now and than. Mostly now. For however dimwitted she may appear she is smart enough not to trust Verdoux with her money. With this wife Verdoux is a sea captain named Bonheur. Annabella is also gullible and freely gives her fortune, which she won playing the lottery, to anyone that asks and falls for every get rich quick scheme. But she never falls for Verdoux's tricks. Each time Verdoux tries to end her life and unexpected twist happens. The best sequence involves them alone in a canoe. These sequences allow Chaplin to go into his physical comedy and at age 48 he could still knock himself around.
Another sequence is the already mentioned one between Verdoux and The Girl. It doesn't have laugh out loud moments but as a director Chaplin keeps building anticipation as the audiences hangs on The Girl's every action. Will she or won't she drink the glass with the poison that Verdoux has disguised as a glass of wine. We laugh at the dark nature of the situation as we watch Verdoux's anxious behavior.
The movie ends on a bittersweet note. Verdoux has been sentenced to death. This isn't much of a surprise as the opening shot of the movie is of Verdoux's tombstone. Verdoux at this point faces his fate head on. As he leaves his prison cell, heading for a guillotine, a beam of light strikes Verdoux's smiling face. Is it the Heavens shining on him? Either way Verdoux has found peace.
"Monsieur Verdoux" was a critical and box-office flop when released. Audiences didn't want to see their beloved Chaplin as a murderer and they were not in the mood for his comments on the business of war. It was too soon after the war. The movie did end up receiving an Oscar nomination however for Chaplin's screenplay. Many have warmed up to the movie over the years. With hindsight I believe it was Chaplin's last truly significant film. "Monsieur Verdoux" is worth a second look.
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