Lot of us have grown up with classic Charlie Chaplin movies – from the Kid to City Lights, Modern Times, Great Dictator to so many more. His brand of slap stick comedy is still unmatched and means entertainment for a next quite a few generations.
Though primarily known for his comic roles, this legend has made an equal number of serious movies that touch your heart and make you weep. And all that without ever making them boring. One that I recently saw was Monsieur Verdoux which was very different from other more popular Chaplin movies I have seen.
Monsieur Verdoux (MV for all future references) at the outset is a simple man with a family of wife and a child, working as a cashier in a bank for 30 years. In comes the depression and with it the pink slips and our man MV is the first to get the kick and suddenly his stable existence with certainties is gone. There are no jobs out there, especially for a man who has just honestly counted cash for 30 years.
Yet he does have a family and they still do need the money to stay alive. MV decides to become a ‘Bluebeard’ which means a man who fools and marries older women with some fortunes and after getting all the money from them kills them. It used to be a profitable profession and MV joins the bandwagon and is quite successful too.
Soon MV is also known as M. Bonheur, M. Vanet and lot more. His original wife and then consequently all the wives think that their husband travels a lot for his business, where as the fact is that he is doing wife hopping (and you thought pub hopping was so hep!). His family is now spread across the country and he starts to invest all the money that he gets in the stock market, earning a lot of quick bucks.
In one of the cases a family gets suspicious of the disappearance of their sister since she married MV and goes to the police too. The police have already been seeing a pattern but are lost because nobody has any photograph of him, though they all say they will recognize him at once if they see him.
Still, MV stays as elusive and out of reach. He is literally “courting” danger, if one may say so. You feel horror at his cold strategy and the killing that he goes on with and yet you see a human side of him when he meets his real family or when he has a tryst with a poor girl and helps her in her time of need.
Then comes the time depression is at its height and the stock market crashes. With it MV loses all the money he has ever earned and even worst his family. His wife and child are not able to survive the starving that came along with the crash. In a freak incident, MV does finally get caught and is given death penalty. In the court when he is asked if he wishes to say something in his defense and his answer is Chaplin’s typical political statement through his movies. He says that no doubt whatever he has done is horrible, but still it’s less barbaric than countries making bombs and guns that kill thousands of innocent women and children, ruining lives of so many civilians.
Of course the movie has a lot of typical Chaplinesque light moments, yet the undercurrent of dread almost never leaves. The violence is not shown but just stated through its excellent dialogues. The city of Paris and its culture is beautifully captured starting from the occasional usage of its poetic language to the gorgeous road side cafes and flower shops.
The funniest moment is when he is getting married to the latest bird he has ensnared and one of his other wives turns up a guest without knowing whose shaadi it is. And the tenderest moment when after deciding to poison the poor girl he has given shelter to, he listens to her passionate conversation and sends her off with lot of money to take care of herself in those difficult times.
Charlie Chaplin was undoubtedly one of the greatest directors and actors ever. The sensitivity with which his movies are made especially after he picked up the directors baton is nothing short of astounding. The themes are so universal and timeless that even today they have a ring of truth to them. Needless to say his performance is nothing short of brilliant and a great effort from the rest of the cast also.
All in all, this movie is a movie-lovers delight… even after so many years.