Monsieur Verdoux (1947), starring Charlie Chaplin, Martha Raye
 Monsieur Verdoux is one of Charlie Chaplin’s most unusual films.  One of his talking films, Charlie Chaplin is not playing the role of the little Tramp in any way.  Instead, he plays the dapper Monsieur Henri Verdoux, a French bank teller who, after being “downsized” in the 1930’s, decides to support his invalid wife and son in a most unusual way.  In real life, Charlie Chaplin had the reputation for being a lady-killer; in Monsieur Verdoux, he plays a literal lady-killer — a man who, under a variety of aliases, romances, marries and murders rich women.
The movie begins
The film opens with Monsieur Verdoux picking roses from his garden, and being too tenderhearted to step on a caterpillar — while in the background, an incinerator is burning, with the clear implication that his latest victim’s corpse is being disposed of in it.
This sets up the recurring dichotomy of the main character — he is legitimately both a kindhearted individual, who is capable of cold-blooded murder without remorse. And this is supposed to be a comedy? Actually, yes — and parts of it are quite funny.
About the murder victims
Much of the humor and any audience sympathy comes from the character of the women that Monsieur Verdoux murders. Most of them are harsh, mean-spirited, etc. and “deserving” of their fate. One of the extended scenes is with his “wife” Annabella, played by Martha Raye. It quickly becomes a running joke that all of Monsieur Verdoux’s attempts at murdering Annabella are foiled by one thing after another — with the audience rooting for Henri to get rid of the annoying Annabella.
One woman that Monsieur Verdoux doesn’t murder is a woman that he passes on the street one evening, who’s just recently released from prison. Verdoux invites her to his apartment, intending to test a new, untraceable poison on her. However, once the woman tells her story, and how she went to prison as a result of trying to provide for her invalid husband — and this touches Monsieur Verdoux, reminding him of his own invalid wife, and in a touching moment, he spares her from drinking the poisoned wine.
Later on in the film, this moment of kindness comes back to haunt him, inadvertently leading to Monsieur Verdoux’s capture and trial. This is after the Great Depression, during which Verdoux has lost all of his wealth and has led to the death of his wife and child. Monsieur Verdoux has lost his will to fight, and in a comic turn at a night club, he turns himself in to the police.
Monsieur Verdoux is a funny film, but also a thought-provoking one. You do not walk away agreeing with Henri Verdoux, but you do think about some of the issues that he addresses. I rate it 3 clowns out of 5.
Product description of Monsieur Verdoux
Charles Chaplin turns his traditionally sunny sensibilities inside out with this sublime black comedy about a family man who secretly uses murder to support his beloved invalid wife and child. There’s little of the immortal Tramp in Verdoux, yet the fastidious dandy is not lacking in comic graces. Most hilarious of all are the always-foiled attempts to dispatch the raucous Annabella (Martha Raye). When this most atypical Chaplin film opened, the world was not ready to look death in the face and walk away smiling. Today, Monsieur Verdoux ranks among Chaplin’s best works. It is killer comedy.
Funny movie quotes from Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux
Henri Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin): Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.
Henri Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin): Wars, conflict — it’s all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify!
Judge: Monsieur Verdoux, you have been found guilty. Have you anything to say before sentence is passed upon you?
Henri Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin): Oui, monsieur, I have. However remiss the prosecutor has been in complimenting me, he at least admits that I have brains. Thank you, Monsieur, I have. And for thirty-five years I used them honestly. After that, nobody wanted them. So I was forced to go into business for myself. As for being a mass killer, does not the world encourage it? Is it not building weapons of destruction for the sole purpose of mass killing? Has it not blown unsuspecting women and little children to pieces? And done it very scientifically? As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison. However, I do not wish to lose my temper, because very shortly, I shall lose my head. Nevertheless, upon leaving this spark of earthly existence, I have this to say: I shall see you all … very soon … very soon.
Priest: May the Lord have mercy on your soul.
Henri Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin): Why not? After all, it belongs to Him.
Henri Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin): Business is a ruthless business, my dear.
Trivia about Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux:
- Verdoux’s quote “One murder makes a villain; millions a hero” is taken from the abolitionist Bishop Beilby Porteus (1731-1808).
- The tune that Verdoux plays on the piano as Lydia sits by after she withdrew the 70,000 francs is the opening and closing theme to Chaplin’s film A Woman of Paris (1923), which he used in 1976 when he re-scored the picture.
- The producers of the film were sued in 1948 by Parisian bank employee Henri Verdoux.
- The film was originally meant to be directed by Orson Welles and starring Charles Chaplin, but Chaplin backed out at the last moment, saying that he had never had anyone direct him before and didn’t want to start. Instead, he bought the screenplay off Welles and re-wrote parts of it, crediting Welles with only the “idea”. Welles said that, despite most of the script being his, he didn’t mind as it was one of his lesser works.
- Based on real-life French murderer Desire Landru, who was guillotined in 1922.
- The film was a colossal box-office flop on its 1947 release, despite being ardently championed by writer-critic James Agee, who considered Charles Chaplin’s acting performance the greatest male performance he had ever seen in films.
- Filmed in 1947, but not approved for release in the US until 1964. Â This was due mainly to the US government’s distaste for Charlie Chaplin’s politics.
DVD Features of Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux
- Available subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese (Unspecified)
- Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
- Introduction by David Robinson
- “Chaplin Today: Monsieur Verdoux,” Documentary by Bernard Eisenschitz Plan drawings and preparatory sketches Photo gallery, film posters, and trailers
Editorial review of Monsier Verdoux (1947) starring Charlie Chaplin, Martha Raye, courtesy of Amazon.com
This blistering little black comedy was well ahead of its time when released in 1947. Originally, Orson Welles had wanted Chaplin to star in his drama about a French mass murderer named Landru, but Chaplin was hesitant to act for another director, and used the idea himself. He plays a dapper gent named Henri Verdoux (who assumes a number of identities), a civilized monster who marries wealthy women, then murders them (as we meet him, he’s gathering roses as an incinerator ominously bellows smoke in the background) and collects their money to support his real family.
The Little Tramp is now a distant memory, though this was the first film not to feature Chaplin’s beloved creation. Verdoux is largely viciously clever until it gets too heavy-handed, as evidenced when a woman he spares returns years later as the mistress of a munitions manufacturer. Ultimately, Chaplin breaks character (much as he did in The Great Dictator) to preach to the masses, declaring that against the machines of war that grip the planet, humble killer Verdoux is “an amateur by comparison.” —David Kronke
Cast of characters
- Charles Chaplin … Henri Verdoux – Alias Varnay – Alias Bonheur – Alias Floray
- Mady Correll (A Guy a Girl and a Gob) … Mona Verdoux – His Wife
- Allison Roddan … Peter Verdoux – Their Son
- Robert Lewis (Ziegfeld Follies) … Maurice Bottello – Verdoux’s Friend
- Audrey Betz (The Outlaws is Coming) … Martha Bottello – His Wife
- Martha Raye (Billy Rose’s Jumbo) … Annabella Bonheur
- Ada May … Annette – Her Maid
- Isobel Elsom (Who’s Minding the Store?) … Marie Grosnay
- Marjorie Bennett (36 Hours) … Her Maid
- Helene Heigh (9 to 5) … Yvonne – Marie’s Friend
- Margaret Hoffman … Lydia Floray
- Marilyn Nash (Unknown World) … The Girl
- Irving Bacon (Blondie’s Blessed Event) … Pierre – Carlotta’s Husband
- Edwin Mills … Jean Couvais
- Virginia Brissac (The Ghost Breakers) … Carlotta
- Almira Sessions (Sullivan’s Travels) … Lena Couvais
- Eula Morgan … Phoebe Couvais
- Bernard Nedell (The Loves of Carmen) … Prefect of Police
- Charles Evans (Demetrius and the Gladiators) … Detective Morrow
- William Frawley (I Love Lucy) … Jean La Salle
- Arthur Hohl (You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man) … Real Estate Agent
- Barbara Slater (Half-Wits Holiday) … Flower Girl
- Fritz Leiber (Bagdad 1949) … Father Fareaux
- Vera Marshe (Way Out West) … Vicki Darwin
- John Harmon (King of the Underworld) … Joe Darwin
[Updated February 4, 2022]