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beyond his controlling, had all contributed to arouse his detractors to a point of fanaticism.
Chaplin continued to mould his public and private life according to his own ideas. He expressed those ideas clearly and firmly and would not move from them. He would not become an American citizen, because he did not believe in nationalism. He expressed admiration for the efforts Soviet Russia had made to establish a vigorous home policy, but denied any communist leanings or tendencies, or that he was himself in truth a communist. Over his private affairs he maintained, as always, an unbroken silence. His attitude infuriated the fanatics; and he then presented them with Monsieur Verdoux, in which film he reached his peak of subtlety and satire, and in which he excoriated all that his detractors stood for, and were maintained by.
The genesis of Verdoux is an interesting one. Orson Welles, whose work comes nearest to Chaplin's in originality and independence, was dining one evening with the Chaplins and, as usual, discussing films. From this discussion came a suggestion that a Welles-Chaplin collaboration on a film concerning the French Bluebeard-murderer Landru, might well make film history. Chaplin found the proposal intriguing and possible in the mellow after-dinner hours. But by next morning his acumen had reasserted himself; he knew that collaboration between himself and Welles was impossible. Both were essentially independent directors. By now, however, the possibilities of the Landru theme had seized firm hold of his imagination, and he instructed his manager to buy Welles out. That dinner with the Chaplins was a remunerative one for Welles, who gained 25,000 dollars through that half-casual suggestion and presentation of a theme. Landru changed into Verdoux, and his specific pathological homicide was transmuted by Chaplin's alchemy into sociological necessity.
The fate of Monsieur Verdoux in America has been interesting. Several powerful groups, led by the Catholic Church, organized so widespread a boycott over the showing of the film that Chaplin was forced to withdraw it from circulation, since managers would no longer book it. In over two years, the film played just over two thousand dates, as compared with the normal showing of twelve thousand dates for the average film.
In Europe, the film achieved a mixed reception. No one denied its quality: Chaplin showed himself to be still a major artist in film. Many praised it highly; but a large proportion of his early public missed Charlie and his ludicrous misadventures, missed the golden humour of the earlier films, and were uneasy over the astringent wit of this one. A few found the film immensely sad, for it seemed that at last Chaplin, creator of the indomitable little tramp Charlie, had given