Monsieur Verdoux **** (1947, Charles Chaplin, Martha Raye, William Frawley, Marilyn Nash, Mady Correll) – Classic Movie Review 2409

Orson Welles approached Charles Chaplin with the idea of Chaplin starring in a film based on the celebrated French murderer, Bluebeard Henri Landru. Chaplin dropped out of Welles’s project but soon thought the story would make a good comedy. 

Writer-director-producer-composer-star Charles Chaplin’s subversive 1947 American black comedy murder melodrama Monsieur Verdoux is both admirable and chilling.

Chaplin plays a Bluebeard-style character, a bigamist wife killer inspired by the real-life serial killer Henri Désiré Landru, who was executed by guillotine in 1922. It is notable as the first feature film in which Chaplin’s character bears no resemblance to his famous Tramp character.

Monsieur Verdoux strays very far from Chaplin’s usual territory but its mixture of seriousness with sentimentality and slapstick remains the pure essence of Chaplin. As he did so many different jobs on the movie, we can only suppose that this odd, unloved movie was a labour of love for him. He regarded the film as ‘the cleverest and most brilliant film of my career’.

Chaplin stars – and gives an excellent performance – as the neat and spruce martinet French banker Monsieur Verdoux, who marries and murders rich women for their money to support his beloved handicapped wife Mona (Mady Correll) and son Peter (Allison Roddan). But because Monsieur Verdoux kills to make money, he is not in his own eyes a murderer. ‘One murder makes a villain, millions a hero,’ Verdoux says.

Monsieur Henri Verdoux’s aliases are Monsieur Varnay, Monsieur Bonheur and Monsieur Floray.

Martha Raye plays Annabella Bonheu.

Martha Raye scores hilariously as Annabella Bonheur, one of the victims the small and nimble Monsieur Verdoux makes repeated attempts to kill. Among a long list of actors, the supporting cast also includes William Frawley as Jean La Salle, John Harmon as Joe Darwin, Arthur Hohl as real estate agent, Fritz Leiber as Father Fareaux, and Marilyn Nash as a young woman whom Verdoux meets and attempts to poison before he changes his mind after learning about her views on society.

Chaplin’s old silent movie co-star Edna Purviance prepared for a small role in the film of Madame Grosnay, but only (supposedly) plays an extra in the garden party scene, and is glimpsed behind Chaplin when he and Martha Raye bump into each other.

Monsieur Verdoux was much attacked at the time by people who thought Chaplin should not try to make murder funny and then use it to make pacifist points by drawing parallels with the actions of governments. However, over the years it has gained respect and favour, though it is still a chilly movie that movie buffs and Chaplin’s fans often find it hard to warm to.

Orson Welles developed the idea and cast Chaplin as a character based on Landru but Chaplin backed out at the last minute, unwilling to write and act for another director. Welles said Chaplin then bought the script from him for $5000 but rewrote several major sections, including the ending, which Welles thought was the funniest sequence. However, Chaplin claimed to have no memory of receiving a script from Welles.

Welles insisted on receiving a screen credit for the story idea after viewing the film but somehow Chaplin ended up with the credit ‘an original story written by Charles Chaplin’. And it was Chaplin who was Oscar nominated for the 1947 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

The two men’s stories diverge considerably. Chaplin claimed Welles came to his house to propose a series of documentaries, one to be on the French murderer, Bluebeard Landru, which he thought would be a wonderful dramatic part for Chaplin. Chaplin said Welles told him the script had not yet been written and he wanted Chaplin’s help with it, so Chaplin dropped out.

Then Chaplin thought Landru’s story would make a good comedy, phoned Welles and told him that while his new idea had nothing to do with Welles’s proposed documentary or with Landru, he would pay Welles $5,000 to ‘clear everything’.

Before Monsieur Verdoux’s release, Chaplin’s popularity and public image in America had been irrevocably damaged by various sexual scandals and political controversies. And the film with its dark themes was a mismatch with the American postwar political and cultural climate. So both the movie and Chaplin had a generally hostile reception in the US, but it was more of a success in Europe, especially France, where it recorded cinema admissions of 2,605,679.

Approval for production was refused by the MPPDA (now the MPAA) under the Production Code, labelling the scenario, then called A Comedy of Murders, ‘unacceptable’. Chaplin upheld his screenplay against the charge of subversion, but gave in on details and the production board awarded the film its seal of approval.

He was sued in 1948 by Parisian bank employee Henri Verdoux.

Although the story takes place in 1932-1937, the fashions and hairstyles in the film are in the Forties style.

Sir Charles Spencer ‘Charlie’ Chaplin KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977).

The cast are Charlie Chaplin as Monsieur Henri Verdoux, Mady Correll as Mona Verdoux, Allison Roddan as Peter Verdoux,  Robert Lewis as Maurice Bottello, Audrey Betz as Martha Bottello, Martha Raye as Annabella Bonheur, Ada-May as her maid Annette, Isobel Elsom as widow Marie Grosnay, Marjorie Bennett as her maid, Helene Heigh as Yvonne, Margaret Hoffman as Lydia Floray, Marilyn Nash as The Girl, Irving Bacon as Pierre Couvais, Edwin Mills as Jean Couvais, Virginia Brissac as Carlotta Couvais, Almira Sessions as Lena Couvais, Eula Morgan as Phoebe Couvais, Bernard J. Nedell as Prefect of Police, Charles Evans as Detective Morrow, Lois Conklin as the florist, Christine Ell as maid Louise, William Frawley as Jean La Salle, John Harmon as Joe Darwin, Arthur Hohl as real estate agent, Fritz Leiber as Father Fareaux, Vera Marshe as Mrs Vicki Darwin, Barbara Slater as flower seller, Joseph Crehan as Broker, Cyril Delevanti as Postman, Paul Newlan as Garden Party Guest, Frank Reicher as Doctor, Addison Richards as Bank Manager, C Montague Shaw as Mortgage Banker, and Pierre Watkin as Prison Official.

The Great Dictator (1940) does not feature the Tramp, but Chaplin’s Jewish barber character is similar.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2409

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Oona Chaplin at the premiere of Monsieur Verdoux.