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Monsieur Verdoux

  • 1947
  • Approved
  • 2h 4m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
20K
YOUR RATING
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.
Play trailer1:40
1 Video
55 Photos
Dark ComedySerial KillerComedyCrimeDrama

A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.A suave but cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.

  • Director
    • Charles Chaplin
  • Writers
    • Charles Chaplin
    • Orson Welles
  • Stars
    • Charles Chaplin
    • Mady Correll
    • Allison Roddan
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.8/10
    20K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Charles Chaplin
    • Writers
      • Charles Chaplin
      • Orson Welles
    • Stars
      • Charles Chaplin
      • Mady Correll
      • Allison Roddan
    • 104User reviews
    • 84Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 6 wins & 1 nomination total

    Videos1

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    Trailer 1:40
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    Photos55

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    Top cast99+

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    Charles Chaplin
    Charles Chaplin
    • Henri Verdoux - Alias Varnay - Alias Bonheur - Alias Floray
    Mady Correll
    Mady Correll
    • Mona Verdoux - His Wife
    Allison Roddan
    • Peter Verdoux - Their Son
    Robert Lewis
    Robert Lewis
    • Maurice Bottello - Verdoux's Friend
    Audrey Betz
    • Martha Bottello - His Wife
    Martha Raye
    Martha Raye
    • Annabella Bonheur
    Ada May
    Ada May
    • Annette - Her Maid
    • (as Ada-May)
    Isobel Elsom
    Isobel Elsom
    • Marie Grosnay
    Marjorie Bennett
    Marjorie Bennett
    • Her Maid
    Helene Heigh
    Helene Heigh
    • Yvonne - Marie's Friend
    Margaret Hoffman
    • Lydia Floray
    Marilyn Nash
    Marilyn Nash
    • The Girl
    Irving Bacon
    Irving Bacon
    • Pierre - Carlotta's Husband
    Edwin Mills
    • Jean Couvais
    Virginia Brissac
    Virginia Brissac
    • Carlotta
    Almira Sessions
    Almira Sessions
    • Lena Couvais
    Eula Morgan
    • Phoebe Couvais
    Bernard Nedell
    Bernard Nedell
    • Prefect of Police
    • (as Bernard J. Nedell)
    • Director
      • Charles Chaplin
    • Writers
      • Charles Chaplin
      • Orson Welles
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews104

    7.820.1K
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    Featured reviews

    8gavin6942

    Chaplin's Finest Sound Film?

    A suave but cynical man (Charles Chaplin) supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards.

    This film is brilliant, because it is not just entertaining, but also has a strong message. On the surface, it is a man who marries women and kills them in order to get their money. This in itself makes for a good film (and is somewhat risqué for the 1940s). But then, it is also a metaphor for society -- capitalism, imperialism, war... Chaplin takes on the Great Depression and the war industry.

    Most people know Chaplin for his silent films and tramp character, but he really became a strong filmmaker in his later years. This film, along with "Great Dictator" and "King in New York" are among his best works. It is a shame that for whatever reason he is not remembered for the second half of his career.
    8gbrumburgh

    A sublime, eloquent Charlie in his finest sound-era vehicle.

    The word "Bluebeard" ("Landru" in French) has been a part of the American vernacular for some time now, synonymous with the term "wife-killer." Several variations of the infamous Parisian charmer who married then buried have been filmed over the decades - some OK, others not. John Carradine starred in a respectable but unheralded version in the mid-30s as a puppeteer-turned-perpetual strangler. A so-so French/Italian co-production in 1962 starring Charles Denner and Michele Morgan strove for dark comedy but ultimately lacked the creative spark. The worst of the lot was a wretched Richard Burton/Raquel Welch/Joey Heatherton rehash in the 70s, the nadir of Burton's screen career.

    It seems most fitting then that the wry, comic genius of Charlie Chaplin, our beloved "Little Tramp," is allowed to put its delightfully macabre spin on the Bluebeard tale with 1947's "Monsieur Verdoux," winding up with perhaps the most entertaining version yet. First and foremost, it is a pleasure to hear Charlie talk. I also venture to say this is the best of his sound-era films, well-mounted and shot meticulously in black and white, in which he not only produced and directed but provided the music. Who but the loveable Chaplin, with that ever-present tinge of pathos, could play the role of a methodical, unrepentant human wife-disposal who kills purely for financial reward, and have the audience rooting for him!

    Our titular hero is a charming fop of a fellow who operates his deadly deception by a precise timetable - he fastidiously charms, marries and eliminates his unsuspecting victims with keen attention paid to banker's hours! But it's Monsieur Verdoux's motive that gains the viewer's empathy. Our boy is not the mad, demented, twisted, cold-hearted monster one must think. He carries out his dastardly deeds out of selfless need. His out-of-town "business" is conducted solely in order to support and tend to his wheelchair-bound wife, a hopeless cripple and invalid, and family. His devotion, in fact, is so honorable, he succeeds in wrapping you around his little wedding finger. As much as you sympathize for the dowagers he does in, you can't help but think at least the old dears died having been graced by such a noble gentleman.

    Brash loudster Martha Raye, often considered a bust in films for being intolerably larger-than-life, has one of her best roles here, grabbing her share of laughs as one of Verdoux's intended victims - a shrill, obnoxious, but verrrry wealthy dame whom nobody would really mind seeing knocked off. The problem is Charlie can't seem to off her! Every industrious attempt fails miserably. In one truly madcap scene that directly parodies Theodore Dreiser's classic novel "An American Tragedy," Charlie takes Martha, outlandishly bedecked in silver fox furs, out on a crude fishing boat excursion in the hopes of drowning the tenacious harridan. Two comic masters in vintage form.

    Of course, Charlie does get his comeuppance but its all done in grand, sophisticated style. The whole movie is, in fact, so precise and polished that one must forgive him, given his controversial "subversive" leanings at the time, for tacking on an interminable, out-of-character piece of political diatribe at the finishing line. The movie's theme and bitter irony did not even pretend to disguise his great personal anguish and bitterness at America when political conservatives were breathing down his neck. Forgiven he is, for this black comedy, a sublime, eloquent retread of an old familiar creeper, comes off refreshingly original.
    9blanche-2

    Brilliant black comedy with a very serious message

    Charlie Chaplin is "Monsieur Verdoux" in this 1947 film based on the real-life serial killer Henri Landru.

    Verdoux is a bank clerk who is laid off late in life and turns to marrying and killing women for their money in order to support his invalid wife and child.

    Sounds brutal, and when you think about it, it really is, but Chaplin as usual manages to couch his message in comedy. While we see that he is successful in knocking off a couple of women and getting their money (though we never actually see a murder), Verdoux has a couple of failures as well, and there the fun begins.

    One of his women, Annabella Bonheur, is played hysterically by Martha Raye as a vulgar loudmouth eternally suspicious of Verdoux, who is posing as a boat captain. He tries some different ways of killing her, but no matter what he does, nothing works.

    He then turns his attention to another woman he's been chasing for some time, Marie Grosnay (Isobel Elsom). He's about to walk down the aisle when who does he see as a guest at the wedding - Annabelle. His attempts to get out of the house are priceless.

    Despite some genuinely comical scenes, the speech that Verdoux makes gives its deeper message - Verdoux was in it for the money. To him, the women were business propositions to be exploited.

    His point is that what he has done on a smaller scale is being done by dictators worldwide; people are not treated as human beings but merely for economic gain, for power and for exploitation.

    Though Verdoux's argument doesn't absolve him of responsibility or justify his actions, the warning is a good one - people need to care more about each other and about what's going on in their world, and put their attention on really important matters like suppression of the masses.

    Why, he asks, are the headlines full of Verdoux and not of what is going on around the world? (The film's ending takes place in 1937.)

    It's interesting to consider what would have happened to this story in the hands of Orson Welles, whose idea it was originally. He wouldn't have made it a comedy. It would have been a drama or a detective story.

    Only Chaplin would think of making the story of a serial killer into a comedy of sorts. Certainly 1967's "No Way to Treat a Lady" takes a page or so from this script.

    "Monsieur Verdoux" wasn't well received by the public - at all - and by 1947, people were questioning Chaplin's politics instead of reveling in his genius. It possibly was ahead of its time; it certainly wasn't appreciated as it is today.

    The movie is not without some problems, the biggest one being, what the heck happened to Verdoux's wife and child? It is never explained.

    "Wars, conflicts - it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions a hero. Numbers sanctify." Charlie Chaplin as Verdoux said that 61 years ago.
    dougdoepke

    Humor Worth Pondering

    A satire on a serial killer is not your everyday movie fare. I can see why audiences of that day were turned off by the Little Tramp's sudden homicidal turn. Of course, it's all treated with a light comedic hand until the moralizing end. Still, Chaplin's subtext comes through clearly at certain points-, such that unemployment can drive men to extremes when they've got a family to support.

    On the other hand, not every man, of course, turns to fleecing rich widows and then dispatching them in cold-blooded fashion. But that brings him to his second point--- namely "numbers sanctify". Kill one person and you're a murderer; kill a thousand and you're a hero. Here it appears he's referring to the state that historically kills by the thousands in the name of the patriotism. Remember, the movie's coming right after the close of the horrific WWII, and he finds the point ironic.

    But Verdoux's not through. Capitalism is indirectly indicted for its periodic booms and busts that lead to joblessness, and millions upon millions for munitions manufacturers who prosper during wartime. As for the consolations of religion that come at the end, the gentleman killer appears indifferent without being insulting. Since Chaplin's the sole screenwriter, it's no stretch to believe he's speaking for himself on these matters. Given this rather wholesale indictment of many of the West's leading institutions, small wonder he left the country shortly after under a cloud of controversy.

    Nonetheless, the movie hits its comedic highpoints with Martha Raye as the loudly vulgar Annabella. Try as he does to do her in, she manages to comically thwart him at every turn. That scene in the fishing boat's a classic. All his polished charm and oily flattery just slide by her obnoxious silliness. Raye makes a perfect foil and an inspired piece of casting.

    Of course, some of the beguiling Little Tramp remains in Verdoux's character, as when he befriends the penniless girl (Nash), or in that supremely ironic moment when he ambles Tramp-style toward the guillotine. All in all, it's a strange little movie that was apparently shelved for years for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, it was rather gutsy for Chaplin to take such chances with his established character and at Cold War's outset. It's fairly humorous until you think about its serious points, which are still worth pondering.
    8movedout

    "Presents incongruities to an agreeable monster..."

    Considered in some circles as Chaplin's crowning performance. It's a clever and earnest study of a man, a survivalist in a world gone the way of a corporate jungle. It also becomes incredibly relevant now in its take on the ruthlessness of capitalism and harshness of being part of a civilised society. Take allegory on its face value, Chaplin's Henri Verdoux is a bluebeard, who marries middle-aged women for their money and disposes of them through incinerators or "liquidates them" as he prefers to call it. His actions are driven by a need to care for a young child and an invalid wife who look up to him, as he keeps from them his retrenchment from his post as a bank clerk. He sees no difference in murder as he does in business. There's an inconsolable sadness throughout the film. Despite the gags, and wit teeming within its situations and characters, all roads lead to despair. The cold reach of its cynicism is daunting as it is bleak.

    The film presents incongruities to the calculatingly agreeable monster by showing an aging man whose waning pride demands attention, and a hopeless romantic who surmises that he's a singular creature in a cold, inhuman world. The film then shows how arctic and precise he is when it comes to murder, how meticulous he is when he plans and how efficient he is when it comes to counting francs - cue the sight gag.

    His articulation is almost borne out of being made to play different roles, the confidence he exudes to charm these women into marriage are just facets of Verdoux's intelligence. Above all, he assumes he knows how these women think and what they truly are. His misogynistic tendencies towards women who are self-sufficient is in clear contrast to his wife, who he adores and the ingénue in the street he picks up halfway through the film who restores his faith in humanity when she turns out to be an optimistic but kindred spirit.

    With the film's final minutes, Chaplin indicts big business within the film's context of being in the Great Depression. He uses this opportunity to verve into anti-war criticism, a keenly placed insight being released just a few years after the end of the second World War. Insisting he's nothing but an amateur compared to the murderers behind war and business machinations, he uses the furious revolutions of the wheels of a train to show like in like many of his silents, that he's nothing but a cog - always turning to the tune of the corporations.

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    Related interests

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    Dark Comedy
    Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in Se7en (1995)
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    Comedy
    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
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    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Based on real-life convicted French murderer Henri Désiré Landru, who was executed by guillotine in 1922.
    • Goofs
      Although the story takes place in the years 1932-1937, all the women's fashions and hairstyles are of the 1946-1947 styles, when the film was made.
    • Quotes

      Henri Verdoux: Wars, conflict - it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow!

    • Alternate versions
      The West German theatrical version was cut by approximately 15 minutes.
    • Connections
      Featured in Shallow Hal (2001)

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    FAQ19

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • October 23, 1947 (Canada)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Instagram
      • Official Site
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
      • Latin
    • Also known as
      • A Comedy of Murders
    • Filming locations
      • Lake Arrowhead, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Charles Chaplin Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $2,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $64,636
    • Gross worldwide
      • $65,718
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 4m(124 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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