Monsieur Verdoux: a comedy of murder

Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin) has been working in a bank for thirty-five years when he finds himself out of a job in the Great Depression. Needing to support his invalid wife and child he begins to seduce, marry and then kill a series of rich women in order to maintain the standard of living he is used to. When eventually he is brought to trial, during the escalation of fascism and war in 1930s Europe, Monsieur Verdoux cannot see what he has done wrong given that all around him the world is celebrating mass murder and death. This acerbic and very dark comedy was a controversial disaster for Chaplin on its initial release. He was blacklisted as a “communist sympathiser” by the McCarthy-era witch-hunt in Hollywood, and “Monsieur Verdoux” was used as evidence against him at his trial. Over the years, however, the film has gained a reputation as one of the most subversive and cynical black comedies to have ever come out of Hollywood. The subject matter - serial murder, misogyny, anti-Capitalism - still has the power to shock an audience. Some of the main delights of this film are the range of excellent comic performances by Chaplin himself, Martha Raye and Isobel Elsom. The film was based on a true to life murder case and the idea for the film was suggested by Orson Welles.