Phyrfight Intel

Wikipedia: “Several similarities between Hitler and Chaplin have been noted and may have been a pivotal factor in Chaplin’s decision to make The Great Dictator.

Chaplin and Hitler had superficially similar looks, most famously their toothbrush mustaches, and this similarity is often commented upon. (Tommy Handley wrote a song named “Who is This Man Who Looks like Charlie Chaplin?”[20]) Furthermore, the two men were born only four days apart in April 1889, and both grew up in relative poverty with alcoholic fathers and ailing mothers. Both were great fans of composer Richard Wagner.

As Hitler and his Nazi Party rose to prominence, Chaplin’s popularity throughout the world became greater than ever; he was mobbed by fans on a 1931 trip to Berlin, which annoyed the Nazis, who published a book in 1934 titled The Jews Are Looking at You, in which the comedian was described as “a disgusting Jewish acrobat” (despite the fact that Chaplin was not Jewish). Ivor Montagu, a close friend of Chaplin, relates that he sent Chaplin a copy of the book and always believed this was the genesis of Dictator.

Charlie Chaplin’s son Charles Chaplin, Jr. describes how his father was haunted by the similar backgrounds of Hitler and himself. He writes,

Their destinies were poles apart. One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. “Just think,” he would say uneasily, “he’s the madman, I’m the comic. But it could have been the other way around.”

When interviewed about this film being on such a touchy subject, Charlie Chaplin had only this to say: “Half-way through making The Great Dictator I began receiving alarming messages from United Artists … but I was determined to go ahead, for Hitler must be laughed at.”

Chaplin sat “for hours watching newsreels of the German dictator, exclaiming: ‘Oh, you bastard, you!”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator