Who Really Made the Movie: The Cast of The Great Dictator and the Risks They Took

Charlie Chaplin was terrified. Honestly, most of Hollywood thought he was insane for even trying to make this movie in 1940. He spent $2 million of his own cash—an astronomical sum back then—to satirize a man who was currently conquering Europe. But the movie worked. It worked because the cast of The Great Dictator wasn't just a group of actors hitting marks; they were a collection of Chaplin’s most trusted allies, comedic geniuses, and people who knew that if the film failed, their careers (and possibly their safety) were over.

It is a weird movie. You've got the slapstick of the classic Little Tramp—now a Jewish barber—clashing with the terrifying, high-stakes political commentary of Adenoid Hynkel.

The Dual Role That Defined Charlie Chaplin

Chaplin plays two people. Obviously. You have the nameless Jewish barber and the dictator of Tomania, Adenoid Hynkel. Most people focus on the Barber because he feels like the Tramp, but the real magic is in Hynkel. Chaplin didn't just "act" like Hitler. He studied Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will until he could mimic the cadence of the German language without actually speaking a word of it. He called it "Macaronic" speech. It’s gibberish. But it’s gibberish that sounds exactly like a man who wants to destroy the world.

The Barber is different. He's quiet. He's the soul of the film. When you look at the cast of The Great Dictator, Chaplin is the sun everything else orbits around, but he was also struggling. This was his first true "talkie." He had resisted sound for over a decade. By playing two roles, he gave himself a safety net: one character who barely spoke and one who wouldn't stop screaming.

Paulette Goddard as Hannah: More Than Just a Muse

Paulette Goddard wasn't just another actress. At the time, she was essentially Chaplin’s common-law wife, though their relationship was, frankly, a mess. In the film, she plays Hannah. She’s the grit. While the Barber is a bit of a dreamer, Hannah is the one getting hit with tomatoes and fighting back against the Stormtroopers.

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Goddard’s performance is actually quite modern for 1940. She isn’t a damsel. She’s a refugee. Her chemistry with Chaplin in the Barber Shop scenes provides the only real warmth in an otherwise bleak satire. Interestingly, Goddard almost lost the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind right before this, which turned out to be a blessing. She brought a toughness to the cast of The Great Dictator that grounded the slapstick in a very ugly reality.

Jack Oakie: The Man Who Out-Clowned the Dictator

If Chaplin is the heart, Jack Oakie is the funny bone. He plays Benzino Napaloni, the Dictator of Bacteria (a thinly veiled Benito Mussolini).

Oakie was a massive star in his own right, usually playing the "good egg" or the confident jock. Here, he’s a loudmouth. The scenes between Hynkel and Napaloni are the best parts of the movie. Period. They are two toddlers in suits trying to prove who is more powerful. The barber chair scene—where they keep cranking their chairs higher and higher to look down on one another—is legendary.

• Oakie actually earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this.
• He was one of the few people on set who wasn't afraid to challenge Chaplin’s directing.
• His "mucha-mucha" nonsense Italian was a perfect foil to Chaplin’s fake German.

The Supporting Players: Behind the Tomanian Uniforms

You can't talk about the cast of The Great Dictator without mentioning Henry Daniell. He played Garbitsch (Goebbels). Daniell was a "cold" actor. He had this icy, precise way of speaking that made him the perfect straight man to Chaplin's manic energy. While Hynkel is bouncing off the walls, Garbitsch is the one calmly suggesting that they should just execute everyone. It’s chilling.

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Then there’s Billy Gilbert as Herring (Göring). Gilbert was famous for one thing: sneezing. He had a "comic sneeze" that he used in dozens of films. In this movie, he’s the bumbling military man whose medals keep falling off. It’s a very specific kind of vaudeville humor that Chaplin loved.

Why the Casting Was a Political Nightmare

The studio, United Artists, was sweating bullets. In 1939, when production started, the U.S. was still neutral. The British government actually told Chaplin they would ban the film because they were trying to appease Hitler at the time. Can you imagine? By the time the film was finished, the Blitz had started, and suddenly the cast of The Great Dictator were seen as heroes of the resistance.

The Famous Final Speech

Let’s talk about the ending. It’s controversial. Some critics back then hated it. They said Chaplin broke character. For six minutes, the Barber—disguised as Hynkel—stops being a character and looks directly into the lens.

That wasn't the Barber speaking. That was Charlie Chaplin. He wrote that speech over and over again. He was still writing it while they were filming the rest of the movie. He knew he was using his platform to talk to the world. Some of the cast of The Great Dictator were reportedly worried that the preachy tone would ruin the comedy. Maybe it did, for some. But it’s the reason the movie is still taught in schools today.

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Looking Back at the Legacy

The movie was a massive hit. It was Chaplin’s biggest commercial success. But it also marked the beginning of his downfall in America. The FBI started a file on him because of the "subversive" themes in the film.

When we look at the cast of The Great Dictator, we see a group of people who were making a movie during a literal world-ending event. It wasn't just "content." It was a protest.

If you want to truly appreciate the performances, keep an eye on the background actors in the ghetto scenes. Many of them were actual Jewish refugees who had fled Europe. Their faces aren't "acting" fear; they're remembering it. That’s the depth that makes this more than just a funny movie from the forties.

Next Steps for Film History Enthusiasts:

To get a full sense of the production's scale, you should watch the 2002 documentary The Tramp and the Dictator. It uses rare color behind-the-scenes footage filmed by Sydney Chaplin (Charlie’s brother) that shows the cast relaxing between takes. You can also find the original script drafts at the Chaplin Archives, which reveal how the Benzino Napaloni character was originally much darker before Jack Oakie brought his signature levity to the role.

Finally, compare the cast of The Great Dictator with the ensemble in To Be or Not to Be (1942) to see how different directors handled the "Hitler comedy" subgenre during the war years. It provides a fascinating look at how Hollywood weaponized humor against fascism.