Chaplin Speaks

Meher Baba saw The Great Dictator in a cinema in Delhi in February, 1941, one week before his 47th birthday. He said it was the only film he would have liked to have watched seven times. The Great Dictator was the great silent auteur Charlie Chaplin's first speaking film. In the film a Jewish barber is mistaken for the Dictator of Tomainia. Chaplin speaks very few words in the film, and only quietly, until this final scene.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Actor (Chaplin), Best Supporting Actor (Oakie), Academy Award for Best Original Score (Meredith Willson) and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (Chaplin). In 1997, The Great Dictator was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

See also The Great Dictator and its score