""Charlie Chaplin, the Little Tramp, and Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany, had more in common than just a moustache," says the narrator. "They were born in the same week of the same month of the same year. A few years before Chaplin became famous as the Tramp, Hitler was a tramp. Both were outsiders who left their homeland to conquer the world. They became the best loved and the most hated men of their time.""
"Hollywood studios did not want Charlie Chaplin to make The Great Dictator. When he first started writing the script in 1938, the U.S. had not yet entered World War II. In fact, it still enjoyed friendly diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany, as well as many lucrative business ones. So Chaplin financed The Great Dictator himself. He took advantage of his uncanny resemblance to Adolf Hitler by playing an obvious parody of the Nazi leader, named Adenoid Hynkel, in the film."
Hollywood studios opposed production of The Great Dictator, so Chaplin financed the film himself while the United States remained officially outside World War II and maintained ties with Nazi Germany. Chaplin exploited his physical likeness to Adolf Hitler to portray the dictator Adenoid Hynkel and also played a likable Jewish barber who is mistaken for Hynkel. Biographical parallels between Chaplin and Hitler—shared birth timing and outsider origins—are noted. The barber delivers a powerful speech condemning greed, hate, and war and urging solidarity across races and faiths. Chaplin hoped the spoken plea might help end the conflict.
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