The Great Dictator 1939 1941 next previous
The Great Dictator Clippings 88/369
Charles Darnton, Hollywood, New York, August 1940.
Charles Darnton, undated, Photo IMDb
& „The Great Dictator“ New York Premiere –
Jack Oakie. Napaloni of the picture
(...) Photo, PM, Oct. 16, 1940
& Hollywood (...) Table of Contents
Exclusive Features (...) Inside Report on „The Dictator“
by Charles Darnton (...) Paulette Goddard,
next appearing in Paramount‘s „The Ghost Breakers.“
(...) Hollywood, Aug. 1940
„His timing was wonderful“
Editorial content. „Inside Report on The Dictator
Jack Oakie who burlesques a dictator in Charlie Chaplin‘s
film, discusses the comedy
By Charles Darnton
For several years Charlie Chaplin has been feverishly
at work upon the most daring motion picture thus far ventured
in a hair-trigger era.“ (...)
„I‘d just got back from Europe when Charlie called
me on the phone and said, ,Jack, how would you like to play Mussolini?‘ I thought he was kidding. ,No, I mean it,‘
he said. ,If you haven‘t anything better to do, come over and
see me.‘ When I got to his studio, all out of breath, Charlie
saluted me, and I played the old army game right back at him.
Then I stood at attention in headquarters. ,Sit down,‘
said Charlie. I‘d no sooner parked myself in the nearest
chair – the old legs were wobbly – than he said,
,Stand up.‘ He ran his eyes over me and barked, ,You‘ve
gone thin on me!‘
Signor Oakie buttoned his coat and tried his best
to look shriveled.
,You see, I‘d lost sixty-two pounds on my European trip.
I shedding them, it had never occurred to me that
I might be throwing away the chance of a lifetime. I almost
broke down and cried. ,Never mind,‘ said Charlie,
,go and put the clothes on for him.‘ When I came back
in uniform, wearing my own hair under a military
cap, he took one squint at me and shouted, ,Holy macaroni,
you look just like him.‘ This was such a relief to me
that I threw my arms around him and hugged him. Breaking
the clinch, he said, ,Stick your chin out.‘ I gave him
all the lip I had. ,That does it,‘ he decided. But, delighted
as I was, I couldn‘t help feeling he ought to have
an Italian for the part. ,What do I want a wop to play it for?‘
he asked. Then he inquired, ,What‘s your nationality?‘
,Scotch-Irish,‘ I told him. ,Perfect!‘ he laughed.‘
It was all set, even without a test. For that matter, Oakie
was sure no one had been tested for the part. It was
simply dropped into his lap, a ripe plum that hadn‘t waited
for the picking.
,There‘s only one thing you need to do to play Benzino
Gasolini to my Adenoids Hinkle,‘ Charlie told me,
,and that‘s to fatten up. It won‘t take you long.‘ He seemed
to think to think I had a natural talent for getting fat,
while all I thought of was getting a fat part. Anyhow, I didn‘t
lose any time. That night I went to an Italian restaurant
for dinner and told the chef to spread the oil. When I weighed
in for the picture, Chaplin insisted on my having two
desserts for lunch every day. ,Just remember to stick out
your chin, and leave the rest to nature,‘ was the way
he put it. ,And don‘t play to me, be just as you would with
any other comic.‘‘
As to whether there were more than the two recognizable
figures, Hynkle and Gasolini, in the picture, was
learned: ,There are five or six principals, including Goring
and Goebbels, under other names. But Stalin isn‘t
one of them. He has such a dead pan that it would be
impossible to burlesque him. Paulette Goddard
plays Hitler‘s girl, and I have a wife. Out of consideration
for Chaplin, I don‘t want to give away the secrets
of the plot, but Hitler (he kept getting back to real names)
is a little envious of Mussolini.‘“ (...)
„Just here, Jack Oakie was not his usual bantering self.
For once, he had turned serious. And earnestness marked his
further words:
,Working with Chaplin convinced me beyond any
personal doubt that he was a genius. There‘s no one in
Hollywood like him. In the four months I was in the
picture I learned more about acting than I had during all
the years I‘d put in at it. Without my even realizing
it at first, he started right in making me over. In the nine years
I‘d been carrying that old football for Paramount
the one thing hammered into me was speed. Everything
I did had to be quick stuff, the fly guy who was too
fast for anybody to catch up with him. Chaplin changed all
that. He would stop me in a scene and suggest
my doing it in another way. At the moment I didn‘t understand
what he was after. But it was clear enough when
I saw it on the screen in the projection room. A glance
showed me how he got his effects. Then he would
say, ,All you have to do, Jack, is to take your time. If, for
example, you‘re soaking a guy over the head with
a mallet don‘t do it bing, bing. bing, but bing –– bing –– bing.
That gives the audience time to laugh between each
sock.‘ His timing was wonderful.“ (...)
The Great Dictator world premiere is in New York Oct. 15, 1940
at the Capitol and Astor Theatres.
Capitol Theatre, 1645 Broadway (at 51st Street), New York.
Astor Theatre, 1531 Broadway (at 45th Street), New York.
Redaktioneller Inhalt
The Great Dictator 1939 1941 next previous
