Dir: Charles Chaplin
Described by David Thomson as a “gloating portrait of cruelty”, with characteristic modesty Charlie Chaplin claimed it “the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made”.
Although a consummate actor (displaying a fastidiousness that had been part of his screen persona since his days playing a gentleman of the road) if the final results had managed to combine the cinematic imagination of Orson Welles – who gave Chaplin the original idea for which he receives a credit and who on his own films often demonstrated a deft sense of period, a quality ‘Verdoux’ completely lacks – with Chaplin’s performance it would have been quite a film.
With those two Napoleons on board the clashes of personalities would have been insurmountable. But at least we can be grateful that Chaplin’s performance survives; while the scene with Martha Raye in the rowboat wickedly parodies ‘An American Tragedy’. @RichardChatten