Monsieur Verdoux | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

97% Tomatometer 39 Reviews 88% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings

Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin) is a dapper Parisian family man who loses his job as a bank clerk. In order to support his wife and child, he devises a plan to woo and marry rich widows under a variety of aliases, then murder them for their money. His scheme works until his 14th victim, the loud-mouthed Annabella Bonheur (Martha Raye), proves impossible to kill, and he takes pity on a beautiful but down-on-her-luck prostitute whom he was going to test a poison on.

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Monsieur Verdoux

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Critics Consensus

Charles Chaplin adds an undercurrent of malice to his comedic persona in Monsieur Verdoux, an unsettling satire that subverts the tramp's image to perversely amusing effect.

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Critics Reviews

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Monsieur Verdoux | Rotten Tomatoes (1) Joshua Rothkopf Time Out Rated: 5/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review Monsieur Verdoux | Rotten Tomatoes (2) Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer Rated: 3.5/4 Mar 13, 2009 Full Review Monsieur Verdoux | Rotten Tomatoes (3) Jeff Shannon Seattle Times Perfection? Arguably not; Verdoux has clunky moments and some flat casting, but with an able assist from the great comedian Martha Raye, Chaplin's latter-day greatness is readily apparent. Rated: 3.5/4 Jul 11, 2008 Full Review Monsieur Verdoux | Rotten Tomatoes (4) Carson Timar ButteredPopcorn Monsieur Verdoux is easily one of the most underrated Chaplin films out there. Rated: A Aug 28, 2022 Full Review Monsieur Verdoux | Rotten Tomatoes (5) Judith Crist New York Herald Tribune Chaplin's Bluebeard story is ours to revel in for the sheer brilliance of performance, the cinematic excellence of his direction and the simplicity that shines in all its latter-day naivete. Aug 15, 2022 Full Review Monsieur Verdoux | Rotten Tomatoes (6) André Bazin Revue du Cinema Monsieur Verdoux is undoubtedly the most important of Chaplin's works. When we see it, we are seeing the first evolution of a step which could well be, by the same token, the final step. Monsieur Verdoux casts a new light on Chaplin's world. Dec 9, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Steve D Clunky in every aspect. Rated 1/5 Stars • Rated 1 out of 5 stars 09/17/24 Full Review acsdoug D Tim always primed to like anything Chaplin does, but I couldn't get into this one. It's neither funny nor suspenseful. Rated 3/5 Stars • Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/18/23 Full Review Matthew B Charlie Chaplin thought it was the cleverest and most brilliant film of his career. Orson Welles boasted that he had assisted in the film's conception, although the extent of his involvement is disputed. Yet Monsieur Verdoux was Charlie Chaplin's first cinematic flop in over twenty years.Not only was Monsieur Verdoux a flop – it was a disaster. The film was booed at its premiere. Cinemas showing it were picketed, and there were calls to boycott it. While the film somehow secured an Oscar nomination for its screenplay, it was swiftly withdrawn in America. How could this happen to the onetime darling of American cinema?Following on from Chaplin's attack on industrialisation in Modern Times and his famous pacifist speech at the end of The Great Dictator, Chaplin was already considered suspicious, and Monsieur Verdoux served only to fan the flames, as its anti-hero made speeches comparing his own murderous activities to the behaviour of government and big business.Even setting aside the controversies, the film was hardly of a kind that would readily appeal to admirers of earlier Chaplin films. Audiences knew what to expect from a Chaplin movie – they would get to see a charming and clever comedy, often sentimental, with the flawed but essentially loveable hero, who was usually an anonymous tramp.This is not what Monsieur Verdoux offered them. As the title suggests, the central character is not known simply as a tramp, prospector, worker or Jewish barber. He has a name. In fact he has several, but his real name is Monsieur Verdoux. For this time the farcical slapstick and sentimentality of the usual Chaplin film has been replaced by black comedy. Even the subtitle of the film is "A comedy of murders". And the character of Henri Verdoux was inspired by a real-life figure called Henri Désiré Landru, man whose claim to fame was that he was a serial killer who murdered his wives.The same is true of Henri Verdoux (played by Chaplin). He too murders his wives. There is no plot to the film as such. It is a set of incidents showing us how Verdoux works. He meets rich women, whom he marries quickly. He then takes their money and sells their property. Due to his multiple identities, Verdoux is able to have several wives at once.What prompts Verdoux to murder women? He is not driven by sexual sadism or misogyny. Admittedly Verdoux's views of women are scathing, and the viewer is never encouraged to pity his silly shrewish wives. However satirical comments about marriage are only incidental here. Verdoux has another motivation for his killings, and that is money. This may seem like a trite reason, but it is not in the context of the movie. For Verdoux the business of marriage and murder is just that – a business. He arranges everything professionally – he forges signatures, he arranges postal deliveries, he counts his money and so on, often cheerfully humming as he disposes of his victim's property soon after disposing of the victim.Indeed he takes his moral attitude from the political climate around him. The film shows us footage of Hitler and Mussolini, making the point clear that murder is now the order of the day. At one point, Verdoux quotes the words of Bishop Beilby Porteous: "One murder makes a villain, millions a hero. Numbers sanctify…"Monsieur Verdoux was the ruination of Chaplin because of the time when it was made. Nowadays audiences are more receptive to tasteless humour, and the political climate has changed. It is possible to criticise the world of government and big business without finding yourself in danger of being blacklisted. Monsieur Verdoux can now be seen as an audacious and radical departure for Chaplin that managed to effectively combine humour and entertainment with a social and political message.I wrote a longer appreciation of Monsieur Verdoux on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/monsieur-verdoux-1947/ Rated 4.5/5 Stars • Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 08/30/23 Full Review Stan S Ethernal. A villain I started to compassionate by the second half of the story with good laugh moments, eloquent gentleman lines and a philosophy of hope for the limited comfort and optimism as components to the life formula Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Charlie Chaplin is of course best known for the slapstick work he did in the silent period. He however made some equally good and also equally funny talky movies, of which this movie is perhaps his greatest moment as a talking actor. Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/12/22 Full Review Audience Member A suave but cynical man (Charles Chaplin) supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money, but the job has some occupational hazards. This film is brilliant, because it is not just entertaining, but also has a strong message. On the surface, it is a man who marries women and kills them in order to get their money. This in itself makes for a good film (and is somewhat risqué for the 1940s). But then, it is also a metaphor for society -- capitalism, imperialism, war... Chaplin takes on the Great Depression and the war industry. Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/13/22 Full Review Read all reviews

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Cast & Crew

Charlie Chaplin Director Charlie Chaplin Henri Verdoux Mady Correll Mona Allison Roddan Peter Robert Lewis Maurice Bottello Audrey Betz Martha
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Synopsis Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin) is a dapper Parisian family man who loses his job as a bank clerk. In order to support his wife and child, he devises a plan to woo and marry rich widows under a variety of aliases, then murder them for their money. His scheme works until his 14th victim, the loud-mouthed Annabella Bonheur (Martha Raye), proves impossible to kill, and he takes pity on a beautiful but down-on-her-luck prostitute whom he was going to test a poison on.

Director
Charlie Chaplin

Producer
Charlie Chaplin

Screenwriter
Orson Welles

Production Co
United Artists

Genre
Comedy, Drama

Original Language
English

Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 23, 2017

Box Office (Gross USA)
$60.6K

Runtime
2h 3m
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