Chaplin acts the roles of Hitler (alias Adenoid Hynkel) and a Jewish
barber who returns as an amnesiac, decades after an accident in World
War I, totally unaware of the rise of Nazism and the persecution of his
people. The representation of Hitler is vaudeville goonery all the way,
but minus the acid wit and inventive energy that Groucho Marx managed in
his impersonation of authoritarianism gone berserk in
Duck Soup.
Mr Nobody is eventually carted away to a concentration camp, which
leads to a reversal of roles when the barber escapes and is mistaken for
Hynkel on the eve of the invasion of Austria. Cue for an impassioned
speech about freedom and democracy calculated to jerk tears out of the
surliest fascist, in a manner startlingly similar to Hitler's very own
delivery.
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