| Monsieur Verdoux | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster (1947) | |
| Directed by | Charlie Chaplin |
| Screenplay by | Charlie Chaplin |
| Story by | Orson Welles |
| Produced by | Charlie Chaplin |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Roland Totheroh Curt Courant (uncredited) |
| Edited by | Willard Nico |
| Music by | Charlie Chaplin |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 124 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $323,000 (US) $1.5 million (international)[2] |
Monsieur Verdoux is a 1947 American black comedy film directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin, who plays a bigamist wife killer inspired by serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. The supporting cast includes Martha Raye, William Frawley, and Marilyn Nash.
In the film, a bank teller is fired after three decades of work. The unemployed man still has to financially support his incapacitated wife and their child. He resorts to entering bigamous marriages with wealthy widows, killing each of them in turn. Years later, the con man goes bankrupt and loses his family. During a dinner with an old acquaintance, he is recognized by the family of one of his victims. He is sentenced to death in a murder trial, but compares his relatively few victims to the millions of people killed in wars waged for profit. The film ends with the killer heading to his execution.
- ^ Variety Staff (October 14, 2011). "Actress Marilyn Nash dies. Starred with Chaplin in 'Monsieur Verdoux'". Variety. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
- ^ Balio, Tina (2009) [1987]. United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 54, 214. ISBN 978-0-299-23004-3.