On Thursday, January 26, Edmond Town Hall will host two special screenings of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) in HD, a matinee at 1 and an evening show at 7 pm. The matinee will be subtitled for those with hearing impairment.

All tickets are $3.

Charlie Chaplin wrote the script and began production on The Great Dictator in 1937, before most people believed Nazism was so despicable. In this film, Chaplin openly mocked not only Adolf Hitler, but also Benito Mussolini, who had formed a military alliance with Hitler in 1939.

By the time of the film's release, Britain was at war with Germany and in the midst of the Blitz. Chaplin reportedly said that, had he known the true extent of Nazi atrocities, he "could not have made fun of their homicidal insanity."

In this, his first "talkie" film, Chaplin plays Dictator Adenoid Hynkel, who wants expand his empire, while a poor Jewish barber (who looks remarkably like Hynkel) tries to avoid persecution from Henkel's regime. In one of the most memorable sequences, Hynkel playfully dances with an enormous inflated globe, as if to say "the whole world is mine!"

Later, due to being mistaken for Henkel, the barber ends up standing before several microphones to give a key radio address, "I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor," he begins his most unexpected speech, "I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black man, white.... More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.... To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress..." It is a speech full of melancholy, yet hope for a more beautiful future.

Critic Roger Ebert called the work "a funny film, which we expect from Chaplin, and a brave one. He never played a little man with a mustache again."

The Law Offices of James O. Gaston have sponsored this film.

"This is a perceptive and important movie for the times, then and now," observed Mr Gaston.

The next films scheduled in Newtown Cultural Arts Commission's 2017 Someday Cinema Series are Moonstruck on Thursday, February 16; and The Quiet Man on March 16.

Sponsorships are available for several films in the 2017 season. Contact coordinator Jen Rogers at sundaycinemaseries@gmail.com for information.

Visit fb.me/somedaycinemaseries or newtownartsCommission.org for more information.

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