Word: chaplinitis
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Monsieur Verdoux has serious shortcomings, both as popular entertainment and as a work of art. But whatever its shortcomings, it is one of the most notable films in years. It is not the finest picture Chaplin ever made, but it is certainly the most fascinating...
...such acts are rare. One of the world's most inspired and most popular artists-a man who for decades has delighted people of all races, from children to highbrows-now deliberately releases a film which almost nobody can wholly like. Many will detest the product and despise Chaplin for producing it. He has replaced his beloved, sure-fire tramp with an equally original, but far less engaging character-a man whose grace and arrogance alone would render him suspect with the bulk of the non-Latin world. He has gone light on pure slapstick and warm laughter...
Magnificence & Muddle. Unlike most of the few films which try with any honesty to say anything remotely worth saying, this one does not, in its last reel or so, duck out from under. In Chaplin's last minutes, instead, he opens up with his heaviest guns, and sticks by them to the bitter end. In the whole two hours of the film, there is not one instant of bidding in any shabby way for the audience's sympathy. Morally alone, this is a remarkable thing to have done...
Artistically, the film is no less extraordinary. It has its blurs and failures. Finely cut and paced as it is, the picture goes on so long, and under such darkness and chill, that the lazier-minded type of cinemagoers will probably get tired. Chaplin overexerts, and apparently overestimates, a writing talent which, though vigorous and unconventional, weighs light beside his acting gifts. As a result, a good deal of the verbal and philosophic straining seems inadequate, muddled and highly arguable -too highbrow for general audiences, and too naive for the highbrows...
...majority of Manhattan critics found the film baffling, disappointing, offensive, and, in stretches, plain boring. But a few enjoyed the subtle, tragicomic ironies germinated by Chaplin's powers of intuition, of pure feeling, and of observation. The set pieces of pure slapstick are as skilled and delightful, and as psychologically penetrating, as any Chaplin has ever contrived. The casting (including Victim Margaret .Hoffman) is excellent and there are a couple of dozen fine pieces of characterization and acting, notably by Isobel Elsom and Martha Raye. Working with a new character, and adapting his old, mute artfulness to a medium...