After dedicated service in the Great War, a Jewish barber (Charles Chaplin) spends years in an army hospital recovering from his wounds, unaware of the simultaneous rise of fascist dictator Adenoid Hynkel (also Chaplin) and his anti-Semitic policies. When the barber, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Hynkel, returns to his quiet neighborhood, he is stunned by the brutal changes and recklessly joins a beautiful girl (Paulette Goddard) and her neighbors in rebelling.
Release date: October 31, 1940
The Great Dictator is arguably the, well, greatest political film ever made, thus one of those very few works that single-handedly justify cinema as the 20th century's key art. The world's most famous actor-producer-writer-director: Charlie Chaplin, went out to ridicule the world's then most infamous despot: Adolf Hitler.

Who, today, would have the public's ear as well as artistry and craftsmanship to even think about doing, let alone embark on a journey like this? And, who'd have the genius to come up with the film's central idea: that the fascist potentate has a double among the very people he wants to erase – a lookalike who'll take his place in the end to give a speech, rallying all decent human beings to rise against the evils this dictator and his cabal do with such impunity.