MONSIEUR VERDOUX 1947

Superb black comedy directed by Charlie Chaplin about an urbane cynical vegetarian, cat-loving bigamist Bluebeard who supports his invalid wife Mona (Mady Correll) and little boy by committing amorous adventures with women whom he then kills and takes their fortunes. Having lost his job of thirty years during a financial depression, he moralizes that this is the only way he can serve to take care of his family.

Chaplin is brilliant as he travels between the ‘object’ of his next bit of income as Henri Verdoux, Alias Varnay, Bonheur, and Floray. The ladies are hilariously diverse and not without ridicule… The rowboat scene is a riot!

I’ll be doing an extensive post on this film as it has caught my heart like the delirious flu… Co-stars Isobel Elsom as Marie Grosnay, Martha Raye is absolutely priceless as his lottery-winning dame Annabella Bonheur, Audrey Betz as the stodgy Martha his other wife, Marjorie Bennett as Marie’s maid, and Marilyn Nash as the young homeless girl…

The Girl- “It’s a blundering world and a very sad one yet a little kindness can make it beautiful…”

I bid you all adieu for now – Le MonsterGirl