October 15, 1940 –
Two of the most famous men in the world, not only had superficially similar looks, most famously their mustaches, but were born only four days apart in April of 1889 and both grew up in relative poverty. One of them decides to take a huge risk and release a film taking advantage of this freakish similarity, The Great Dictator, on this date.
When Charles Chaplin first announced that he was going to make this film, the British government, whose policy at the time was one of appeasement towards Nazi Germany (remember peas in our time), announced that they would ban it. By the time of the film’s release though, Britain was at war with Germany and in the midst of the blitz, so the government’s attitude towards the film had completely changed toward a film with such obvious value as propaganda.
