Monsieur Verdoux

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This blistering little black comedy was well ahead of its time when released in 1947. Originally, Orson Welles had wanted Chaplin to star in his drama about a French mass murderer named Landru, but Chaplin was hesitant to act for another director, and used the idea himself. He plays a dapper gent named Henri Verdoux (who assumes a number of identities), a civilized monster who marries wealthy women, then murders them (as we meet him, he's gathering roses as an incinerator ominously bellows smoke in the background) and collects their money to support his real family. The Little Tramp is now a distant memory, though this was the first film not to feature Chaplin's beloved creation. Verdoux is largely viciously clever until it gets too heavy-handed, as evidenced when a woman he spares returns years later as the mistress of a munitions manufacturer. Ultimately, Chaplin breaks character (much as he did in The Great Dictator) to preach to the masses, declaring that against the machines of war that grip the planet, humble killer Verdoux is "an amateur by comparison." --David Kronke

Description

Charles Chaplin turns his traditionally sunny sensibilities inside out with this sublime black comedy about a family man who secretly uses murder to support his beloved invalid wife and child. There's little of the immortal Tramp in Verdoux, yet the fastidious dandy is not lacking in comic graces. Most hilarious of all are the always-foiled attempts to dispatch the raucous Annabella (Martha Raye). When this most atypical Chaplin film opened, the world was not ready to look death in the face and walk away smiling. Today, Monsieur Verdoux ranks among Chaplin's best works. It is killer comedy.

Customer Reviews:

"Monsieur Verdoux" was a disaster at the American box-office..........2007-01-08

Abandoning for the first time his character of Charlie the Tramp and creating the new and intriguing one of "Monsieur Verdoux," Charles Chaplin subtitled his first film in seven years "a comedy of murders." This was meant to shock, as was the picture's attack on war and on capitalism as the source of war, not to mention its ironic sidelights on Christianity--but to shock us to our senses...

"Monsieur Verdoux" managed to shock the American middle class, but not in the way its maker had intended... The public connected the distasteful message of this "crazy" film with vague memories of scandals in Chaplin's personal life and his supposed left-wing leanings...

The screen's greatest actor, its most important creative figure, the most famous man in its history, known to more of his contemporaries than even the central figures of the great religions, Chaplin for the first time tasted defeat and failure...

"Limelight," which appeared five years later, was booked into only 3,000 theaters instead of the 12,000 which in earlier days had always been eager for any Chaplin film... This debacle had nothing do with the quality of the picture but stemmed from the efforts of pressure groups which, incensed at Chaplin's defiance of accepted moral and economic standards, exerted all their power to persuade exhibitors not to show and the public not to attend it... Only its tremendous European success, as in the case of "Monsieur Verdoux," saved it from financial catastrophe...

But bigotry and hate were not the only reasons for the failures of these two highly personal confessions... They are the films of a man who has withdrawn to a distance to observe the human comedy, and it is from a distance that he sends us his messages... Their Sophoclean irony and detachment are matched by a latent savage anger and an infinite compassion... They deal in high style with our highest concerns... Above all they seek to speak the truth, not the acceptable truth, not necessarily the whole truth, but the truth as an aging man leaving illusions behind sees it... If they have a film counterpart, it is Von Stroheim's "Greed," and, pressure groups or no, they were bound to meet the fate of "Greed."

an ironic delight of a movie.......2006-12-25

I first saw the movie when I was 17 years old and was smitten immediately by its dark, perverse humor, and especially the performance of Martha Raye. It is worth buying just for her performance alone, a classic of comedy. Some of it seems a bit awkward and not smoothly done, such as the speeding wheels of the train to indicate travel and time passing. And some of Chaplain's shticks such as the way he counts bills seem a bit gratuitous but these flaws don't do much damage to the whole. One of Chaplain's best if not the very best.

KILL A MILLION THEY CALL YOU A HERO; KILL ONE AND THEY KILL YOU.......2006-09-06

THe first scene filmed by Chaplin is the final execution scene in which he sums up the philosophy of the whole film and CHaplin's own pacifist philosophy. If we invade other nations to steal their oil, etc., and kill thousands of innocent bystanders, women and childrne in the process, why are we called heroic and patriotic, but if we delight some lonely old widows and fill their dreams and then relieve them of their sorrow in order to feed our suffering family, why are we a villian?

And why does the grotesquely rudely American Martha Raye (The model for so many current comediennes?) survive? I guess because she was a lottery winner for her wealth, and not a silly lonely old widow.

Check out the streetwalker. Cute. But then corrupted by wealth and gaining money through her munitions manufacturing lover and thus in favor of war and therefore Verdouz loses heart whereas he once admired her pragmatism

HOORAY FOR RAYE!.......2006-04-23

When Chaplin set about to tell the tale of MONSIEUR VERDOUX, he wanted an actress for the role of the indestructible Annabella who could hold her own in the comedy department. He looked no further than stage/radio/movie star Martha Raye, who was known for her improvisational skills and was fearless when it came to comedy. Raye considered this the high point of her career, to have been chosen by the man she considered The Master as a co-star. Without exception, critics hail the rowboat scene when Verdoux is trying vainly to murder the obnoxious Annabella as the highlight of the film. Given the right director, Raye was matchless in comedy and also proved to be a capable dramatic actress in a precious few roles (Jumbo, The Gossip Columnist). Watch this film, if only to appreciate the comedy genius of Martha Raye. Oh, Chaplin ain't bad either.

Chaplin adrift in a dark and sinister world.......2005-12-13

Chaplin plays a French Bluebeard who loses his respectable job at a bank during the Depression and then takes to marrying and murdering rich women in order to get the money to support his invalid wife and child. It's a black comedy with a lot more emphasis on black than comedy. There's intelligence here and a great deal of cynicism: the world is an evil place, kindness is a rare commodity, etc.

What shocked most people was Chaplin's total lack of remorse as the murderer; he treats it just like a business. There are a couple of old comedy routines thrown in (most memorable is where he tries to bump off Martha Raye in a rowboat), but they don't amount to much. Chaplin's "common man" (so well represented by the little tramp in earlier pictures) is now lost in a sea of worldly despair and nihilist philosophy. There might be a lot to chew on here about the fate of mankind in a bleak world, but it's not much fun to watch.

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

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Bluebeard's Eighth Wife [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Manufacturer: Universal
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000N1FUB0

Product Description

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0), Spanish (Subtitles), SYNOPSIS: The great Ernst Lubitsch directed this farce (written by Charles M. Brackett and Billy Wilder) about a free-wheeling millionaire, Michael Brandon (Gary Cooper), who enjoys getting married but has a hard time staying married: he's had seven wives and is looking for number eight. He thinks he may have found her in the person of Nicole de Loiselle (Claudette Colbert), whom he meets in a shop on the French Riviera. Unfortunately for Michael, Nicole doesn't like him very much and keeps rebuffing his advances, even though most women would be only too happy to marry him for his money. For just that reason, Nicole's father (Edward Everett Horton), a financially embarrassed French nobleman, strongly suggests that matrimony with Michael would be a good idea, especially since Michael doesn't want to take no for an answer. Nicole eventually relents and weds Michael, but when she tries to get him to change a few of his habits during the honeymoon, he makes plans to divorce her. But Nicole has finally decided that she loves Michael after all, and, as he tries to flee from her, she gives chase, determined to win his heart once and for all. The same story was previously filmed as a silent picture in 1923. SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery,

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Bluebeard
Starring: Bluebeard
Manufacturer: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
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ASIN: B000VSDNFK
Release Date: 2007-11-27

The Black & Blue Collection (3 films} Bluebeard, Black Dragons, & The Black Raven

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The Black & Blue Collection (3 films} Bluebeard, Black Dragons, & The Black Raven
Starring: John Carradine , Jean Parker , Nils Asther , Ludwig Stössel , and George Pembroke
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer , William Nigh , and Sam Newfield
Manufacturer: ROAN
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ASIN: B0002T7YXA
Release Date: 2004-08-31

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"Monsieur Verdoux" was a disaster at the American box-office...
an ironic delight of a movie
KILL A MILLION THEY CALL YOU A HERO; KILL ONE AND THEY KILL YOU
HOORAY FOR RAYE!
Chaplin adrift in a dark and sinister world

Charles Chaplin: Monsieur Verdoux
Starring: Irving Bacon , Marjorie Bennett , Audrey Betz , Virginia Brissac , and Mady Correll
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
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ASIN: 6305837104
Release Date: 2000-05-16

Amazon.com essential video

Description

On one level, "Monsieur Verdoux" is the story of a fired French bank clerk who goes into business for himself marrying and murdering women for their money. On another level, the film is an indictment of war, in which, according to Verdoux, mass murder is legalized, celebrated and paraded. "Killing is the enterprise by which your system prospers," Verdoux says. "As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison." This evaluation was particularly apt in the case of the wife, played by the irrepressible Martha Raye. As Annabella, Raye is one spouse who simply refuses to be murdered, comically evading the deadly traps that Verdoux sets for her. A complete change of pace for Chaplin, "Monsieur Verdoux" was a critical and box office failure upon its release in 1947 as the public was not ready for a cynical antihero from the man who brought the world The Little Tramp. However, its re-release in 1964 set box office records as a new audience attuned to the pleasures of black comedy by "Dr. Strangelove" gave the film the reception it richly deserved.

Customer Reviews:

"Monsieur Verdoux" was a disaster at the American box-office..........2007-01-08

an ironic delight of a movie.......2006-12-25

KILL A MILLION THEY CALL YOU A HERO; KILL ONE AND THEY KILL YOU.......2006-09-06

HOORAY FOR RAYE!.......2006-04-23

Chaplin adrift in a dark and sinister world.......2005-12-13

Average customer rating:

Classic example of the BAD MOVIE!!!
AVERAGE MOVIE - NOT WORTH BUYING
very good
Hang on to your seats, a camp classic!
This is a great art and erotic film

Bluebeard
Starring: Richard Burton , Raquel Welch , Virna Lisi , Nathalie Delon , and Marilù Tolo
Director: Luciano Sacripanti , and Edward Dmytryk
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
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ASIN: 6305841977
Release Date: 2000-07-11

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Baron von Sepper (Richard Burton, who seems to sleepwalk through the film), a European aristocrat of vaguely Germanic heritage, marries and murders a succession of international lovelies (among them Raquel Welch, Virna Lisi, Nathalie Delon, and Marilù Tolo) before his seventh bride, peppy but coy showgirl Joey Heatherton, discovers his secret in a frozen basement museum. Would you believe the Baron is just a nice guy who's a poor judge of character? A man who loves deeply but perhaps not too wisely? Or that he harbors a deep, troubling psychosexual secret? Director Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny), who also cowrote this Euro-pudding coproduction, tosses in a bit of all three as he barrels through his reign of terror. He even attempts to milk laughs from a few of the executions, but despite its upbeat pace it drags through unnecessary exposition and dull, dead patches of life-size kewpie doll Heatherton padding around his castle. Richard Burton struggles with a hoary stage beard and a dull screenplay that labors under the pretense of wit to deliver a bored performance. This 1972 production gets some mileage from its guest cast (most of whom offer a tantalizing flash of flesh before succumbing to the Baron's homicidal impulses), but winds up as lifeless as Burton's vacant, weary stare. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Classic example of the BAD MOVIE!!!.......2007-08-10

Richard Burton was one of those actors who just couldn't be bothered to show any discrimination in what roles he picked as long as he got a paycheck (and maybe a bottle of good Scotch and a comely starlet into the bargain). When he was good, he could be great; when he was bad, he could be a real gas. Consider "Bluebeard", where Burton plays the legendary killer of beautiful women while wearing one of the silliest stage beards of all time. It's a perfect example of the big-budget bad movie. The director couldn't seem to decide whether to make a Big Statement about Nazism (Burton's Bluebeard is a pseudo-Nazi leader, who probably would have been an actual Nazi except that the production ran afoul of German laws prohibiting the use of Nazi regalia in entertainment and had to use clumsy substitutes) or smack his lips over Bluebeard's seductions and murders of six gorgeous wives (and one lovely but unfortunate girlfriend of one of the wives). It ends up being unintentional and rather smutty black comedy.

Actually, I need to rethink the phrase "big budget"; the production apparently didn't have the money to be able to keep the actresses around to impersonate corpses in the Big Scene where Joey Heatherton, playing Bluebeard's latest wife (an American flapper who makes one glad that the Roaring Twenties ended with the Crash of '29) discovers the frozen bodies of the previous entries in the Wife-of-Bluebeard Sweepstakes. What she actually sees when she opens the door of Bluebeard's cleverly hidden freezer are seven department-store mannequins inexpertly dressed up to look like the previous victims. If they were able to get Karin Schubert to play dead for the disturbingly necrophilia-themed scene where Burton takes photos of her body as it lies laid out for her funeral, surely they could have collected the various actresses together to have them imitate Popsicles for this key scene. It's emblematic of how clumsy this production is.

Do yourselves a favor and Google for bad-movie maven Jabootu's review of "Bluebeard". It's a classic and says just about everything else I could have said here. Or you could, if you have a DVD player capable of playing Region 2 discs, look for the Italian comedy "Le sei mogli di Barbablu", which stars rubber-faced comedy legend Toto and features Sophia Loren in one of her very first roles.

All that said, should you get this movie? If you're a fan of bad movies...oh heck, YES!

AVERAGE MOVIE - NOT WORTH BUYING.......2004-11-12

I've just received my DVD of Bluebeard.

The ONLY highlights were the gorgeous women. Other than that, the storyline is very average and Burton's acting was VERY WEAK for an Actor of his calibre. This was not the right movie for Burton, who should have declined it, when he read the script.

Dissapointing and not a movie I would recommend anyone buying.

Anyone looking for a second-hand copy ( 2 days old) ??

Derek
Johannesburg
S. Africa

very good.......2002-11-19

I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid, but it was only glimpse of it, but my mom told me what the name was. This film is very interesting Iconsider this one of the old classics.

Hang on to your seats, a camp classic!.......2002-11-12

Though this wretched movie is not the nadir of Richard Burton's career (check out "The Klansman" for that dubious distinction), it comes mighty darn close. The script, the acting and the general tone of this movie is beyond repulsive, it is tawdry, inane and ultimately, quite pathetic. However, there is one overwhelmingly redeeming feature to "Bluebeard:" it is so bad it is unintentionally hilarious!

Burton sleepwalks through this silly film with a cheap, stick-on goatee. As always, he overacts to a ridiculous degree and one eternally wonders why his directors never took him aside and said, "Richard, you don't need to scream every single line." Alas, Burton is magnificently dreadful here, his attempts at lovemaking become bombastically embarrassing to watch, his few, brief attempts at some decent acting are wickedly futile. One real-life moment to ponder: following one love scene with one of the no-name Italian starlets, the director yelled, "cut!" but Burton and the starlet continued kissing and then walked off the set to Burton's waiting limousine. Hmmm, where was Liz?

This is a great movie to enjoy with a few beers and a readiness to make fun of every scene and hurl collective invective against Richard Burton. If you are up to the challenge, then "Bluebeard" is your movie.

This is a great art and erotic film.......2002-01-14

I loved Joey Heatherton's performance. I strongly agree with the cover which says "Richard Burton stars in this fantastic tale with some of the most beautiful women in cinematic history, including Raquel Welch and Joey Heatherton" (and some fantastic European actresses such as Virni Lisi, Nathalie Delon, Karin Schulbert, Agostina Belli, and Sybil Danning). "Baron Kurt Von Sepper (Burton) is an Austrian aristocrat who lives in austere obscurity in a large castle. He has married his seventh wife (Heatherton), to whom he seems ardendly attached. One day, she finds a mysterious golden key which gives access to a secret passage where she finds her husdand's previous wives. It is then that the Baron recounts to her the horrid and bizarre details of his past. It remains to Heatherton to fight for her survival and to avoid becoming just another beautiful frozen body." I strongly recommend this movie.

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Totally unwatchable
Carradine shines in this uneven B thriller
To Love or to Kill, That Is the Question
John Carradine in Ulmer's moody horror classic
Absolutely Terrible

Bluebeard (1944) (B&W)
Starring: John Carradine , Jean Parker , Nils Asther , Ludwig Stössel , and George Pembroke
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00006G8F4
Release Date: 2002-07-30

Customer Reviews:

Totally unwatchable.......2007-06-15

Hear me people. I love movies, good movies, bad movies, awful movies, A, B, and Z movies. I've seen them all people, but Bluebeard falls into a category that defies description. Ever see a movie from the bottom of the barrel?? Well knock a hole in the bottom of the barrel, start digging, and you'll eventually find Bluebeard.

First of all the picture and sound quality is terrible. The scenes at night cannot be seen, the indoor scenes are so whitewashed, it hurts your eyes. The sound is bad too. But despite all this I could still watch it if it had a good story!!!

This is the most godwaful 'horror' movie I have ever seen. It took me three attempts to finish this movie. I fell asleep the first two attempts and finally finished it on the third. It is not because I wanted to finish it, it was because of the challenge to SEE if I could finish it. This movie spends more time wrapped around the investigation of a painting, clothing for puppets, and droll dialouge. The leading lady is a hottie, but believe me you will not care. This has got to be the most boring thing to watch next to live coverage of a session of English Parliment. Heed my warning people, you would rather eat a bucket of dirty toenail clippings than watch this.

Carradine shines in this uneven B thriller.......2006-09-28

I saw this on a cheap DVD copy, and the film may have lost a bit in translation, but time has not been kind to the soundtrack, the dialogue muffled, and the background music overbearing. Even so, this is clearly a very uneven production saved maily by the two leads and the high notes of artistry within an overall muddy piece.
Carradine is fantastic. This is a great role for him, displaying diverse talents. He is unfortunately not directed with any subtlety, and it is clear that he is the villain from the begginning, so this becomes more a story of "will the villain be redeemed by love?" That makes this film more interesting than a standard thriller.
Jean Parker is really luminous and lovely, and is the only young female in the cast that captures the feeling of the time period. The actress playing her sister is arch and tart enough to be playing a film noir gun moll, and the other young actresses are just horrible, and horribly directed, and completely out of place in a period film... they must all have come from the local bar. They certainly add a laugh (even when they shouldn't).
The movie has elements that make it interesting and artistic, the focus on painting style, the accomplished and beautiful puppet show. It becomes fairly clear that this movie should have been called The Puppetmaster... that kind of "just missed the mark" moment mars many elements of this film. It starts with the title BLUEBEARD, which is bandied about, but never followed up on, and continues.
This was a "poverty row" film, and that does endear it to me... but being from 1944, this is not that early a film, and it is simply a grade B shocker - a precurser to Vincent Price's wonderful performances in many B thriller shockers, and they have been enjoied by millions. This may actually have been an attempt to make a period film in film noir style, if so, it was a mismarriage.
Still, I give it a 3 - slightly below average, because in the overview of film history, we have much higher budget films that are infintiely worse on all levels. A similar, earlier film, but much better on all levels, is John Barrymore's SVENGALI. If you liked this, you will LOVE that.

To Love or to Kill, That Is the Question.......2006-09-03

Set against the backdrop of 19th Century France, BLUEBEARD is a black and white movie about a serial killer, named Gaston Morrell (John Carradine), who works as a puppeteer, but is also a talented and troubled artist who strangles his female models upon finishing a picture. Morrell has been attempting to live the simple life of a puppeteer, but his patron, Jean Lamarte (Ludwig Stossel) wants more money and coerces him into painting more pictures. Morrell has fallen in love with a beautiful woman named Lucille (Jean Parker) and Lamarte pursues Morrell to paint her. While Morrell fights with himself, the police race to save Lucille before Bluebeard kills again.

Illustrating the conflict that a disturbed psychopath feels in trying to live a normal life and giving into his murderous urges, BLUEBEARD is a decent movie made and distributed by the Poverty Row studio, Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). John Carradine (yes the father of David, Keith, and Robert), who became best known for playing villains and heavies, is the most famous actor in the film and is said that his role as Bluebeard, aka Gaston Morrell was his favorite role of all time. Jean Arthur does a good job as the female lead in the film. Despite the fact that the film had hardly any budget and was one of many pictures churned out from Poverty Row, the movie is a decent flick that is still entertaining today. That's better than I can say for a lot of the million dollar garbage that Hollywood likes to churn out nowadays.

John Carradine in Ulmer's moody horror classic.......2006-05-07

One of the more ambitious productions from notorious 'Poverty Row' studio Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), BLUEBEARD features the amazing John Carradine in the oft-fabled lead role.

Gaston (Carradine) is an artist/puppeteer in 19th century Paris who gets his thrills from murdering pretty young models. His newest model Lucille (Jean Parker) learns of Gaston's bizarre desires and decides to ensure his capture. Despite the 'Poverty Row' limitations of it's studio, BLUEBEARD is filled with exceptional photography and lavish production values, largely thanks to it's expert director Edgar G. Ulmer (who directed the 1934 masterpiece "The Black Cat" and whose later credits included "Strange Illusion" as well as "The Strange Woman" with Hedy Lamarr).

Jean Parker (best-remembered as Beth in the 1933 Katharine Hepburn/George Cukor "Little Women") plays Lucille and makes for a strong and vibrant heroine in the tradition of the great Ulmer leading ladies. John Carradine, who specialised in playing pychopaths and murderers, is completely mesmerising as Gaston.

The supporting cast includes Nils Asther, Ludwig Stossel, Teala Loring, Sonia Sorel, Henry Kolker and veteran character-actress Iris Adrian.

Absolutely Terrible.......2005-08-10

And not only because the film is though someone had poured bleach on it and the music was loud and unsuitable. What an inane story. Bluebeard is apparently Gaston, the puppeteer. Oh, and on the side (you find out later) he also does portraits of the victims. Gaston also has no beard, blue or otherwise. After one of his fabulous puppet shows,he encounters Lucille, a seamstress. He asks her to make costumes for his puppets, and she says she will. This makes his female puppeteer jealous, so he whips out his trusty cravat and strangles her without further ado. What follows is confusing and inconsistent. Someone has figured out that Gaston is also the painter and his subjects are Bluebeard's victim's, therefore, he must be Bluebeard. A decoy is sent to find him out (not a good idea), and then all is revealed.

This is bad even for 1944. Set in Paris, no one has a French accent. Humour is attempted by making fun an artist's model (apparently she's not as young as the others being questioned, so therefore she is deserving of ridicule. But since the print is so bad, she looks pretty young). There's no depth to any of the characters, and the film seems patchy and thrown together.

[[[4 Alfred Hitchcock & 2 John Carradine Movies Package]]] Jamaica Inn / Easy Virtue / the Lady Vanishes / 39 Steps / Monsoon / Bluebeard

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[[[4 Alfred Hitchcock & 2 John Carradine Movies Package]]] Jamaica Inn / Easy Virtue / the Lady Vanishes / 39 Steps / Monsoon / Bluebeard

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ASIN: B000E33SMK

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CLASSIC BLACK & WHITE / SCENE SELECTION / INTERACTIVE MENUS

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Monsoon & Bluebeard

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ASIN: B00067VKF6

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Bluebeard

Manufacturer: Synergy Ent
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ASIN: B000QRIK4K
Release Date: 2007-05-14

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John Carradine stars as Gaston, a successful nineteenth century artist and puppeteer in France's capital. Gaston, however, lives a secret life as Bluebeard, a demented serial killer who coldly strangles a series of beautiful young women who fail to meet his impossible standards. The lifeless bodies are discarded in the Parisian streets. All is concealed from the authorities until Lucille (Jean Parker), Gaston's comely assistant, learns the awful truth and swears to bring him to his day of reckoning.

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