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Amnesia Minor 
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TITLE |
Great Dictator, The (1940) |
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A Jewish
barber (Chaplin) after fighting in WWI is left with |
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amnesia and
he spends 20 years in hospital. The barber |
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escapes from
the hospital and heads for home in the ghetto. |
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But he
doesn't know about the new dictator Hynkel (also |
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played by
Chaplin) and he gets into a row with a gang of |
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stormtroopers. He is rescued by an officer, Schultz, whose
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life he
saved in WWI. For a while under Schultz's protection |
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the ghetto
carries on as 'normal'. The barber sets up his |
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shop and he
becomes friends with Hannah (Goddard). But |
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then Hynkel
is upset by a Jewish banker refusing to bankroll |
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his intended
war with Austerlitz and the ghetto loses its |
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At the end
Chaplin gives a long speech out of character about
the horrors
of the Nazi regime but today it hasn't the |
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resonance it
must have had at the time. |
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Paulette
Goddard was Chaplin's second wife and was |
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Notes
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