Jan. 19, 2011 - Issue #796 : Canoe Festival
Monsieur Verdoux
Monsieur Verdoux (1947) is Chaplin's black-ice comedy, based on Orson Welles' idea, inspired by real-life murderer Henri Landru. Verdoux (Chaplin) is a chilling serial-killer whose slick charm, love for flowers and romantic streak (he even quotes Keats' "Endymion") only masks his ruthless profit-plan. The picture's an indictment of patriarchy and capitalism as murderous systems (Verdoux's 30 years as a banker was ended by the Depression; by film's end, banks are foreclosing family homes) as Verdoux sees uxoricide as a business enterprise, with wives as short-term investments before "liquidating" them and cashing in on their life-savings. Brash-talking, sharp-eyed Annabella Bonheur (Martha Raye) is just one of Verdoux's many intended "till-death-do-us-part" victims. Double-edged dialogue and comical moments of near-capture make for a kind of sardonic slapstick. Verdoux remarks that one murderer can be executed even as wars kill multitudes, because the world encourages scientific mass-killing and "numbers sanctify." Such social criticism further fuelled the right-wing backlash against Chaplin; some American theatres boycotted the picture and many would refuse to screen his next. vueweekly.com comments: powered by DisqusPrivacy Policy:
Vue respects your privacy. We will not forward your personal information to any other organization except as required by law, and will use your e-mail address only to respond to your comments. We reserve the right to edit and remove comments for length, clarity and/or if they are illegal or inappropriate. Your email address is never shown to visitors to vueweekly.com. Read the whole policy at: http://vueweekly.com/privacy
Comments policy
Comments go online directly without first being seen or reviewed by editors at Vue. Don't personally attack people, don't be defamatory, don't be spam-atory, don't hawk your band, don't pretend to be someone else, be clear, be on topic, be nice. Read our extended comments policy here. »
We use Disqus for our comments system. What's that all about?
We found that managing the comment community at Vue was easier to do with a system like Disqus. If this isn't straightforward to you, get help here.