MONSIEUR VERDOUX

After losing his job at a bank, the urbane Henri Verdoux selects a novel way to continue taking care of his beloved wife and child – marrying rich widows and then killing them for their money. However, things don’t always run so smoothly for this suave Bluebeard. Only Chaplin could make a dark comedy about a serial killer, who believes that he is simply a capitalist on a small-scale doing what wealthy families, corporations, and countries do on a large scale – kill and destroy in order to accumulate wealth and power. Badly received in America upon its release, praised in Europe, MONSIEUR VERDOUX has grown in stature as Americans now appreciate black comedy so much more easily. -- Chale Nafus