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In 1938, while world leaders were swallowing Hitler’s lies about no territorial ambitions, Charlie Chaplin was hard at work writing the screenplay for his first talking feature.

The world had first heard his voice in 1936, singing a song in the otherwise silent Modern Times. His new movie would have him in two speaking roles.

In October 1940 – more than a year before the U.S. entered the war – Chaplin would use his voice in his first talkie to make fun of Adolf Hitler and his fellow fascists, but also to alert those not paying attention to the threat Hitler and his evil crew of thugs posed to the rest of humanity.

By 1938, Hitler had already been shaping Germany to his twisted will for five years, meaning astute observers should have been well aware of the clear and present danger of Nazis by then.

To anyone really paying attention, it was clear Hitler was an unhinged liar, running a one-party nation that accepted his lies. (While Hitler lied all the time, to everyone, he probably wasn’t even close to the constant ignorant lying of the awful sitting president of the U.S., who, I would be willing to bet, thinks Hitler had some really good ideas.)

And, of course, 1938 is the year Kristallnacht took place, or Night of Broken Glass, when Hitler unleashed armed thugs (not unlike ICE) on Germany’s Jewish population. The violence against innocents drew worldwide condemnation, but nothing of significance was done to stop Hitler and his minions from trying to eliminate European Jews and trampling anyone who opposed their madness.

But Charlie Chaplin had been paying attention. He recognized that Hitler was a maniac and that innocent people were being victimized in his reign of terror.

He developed two opposing characters for himself in The Great Dictator. First, it is the last time he portrayed his Little Tramp character. Here the Little Tramp is a WWI veteran who saved the life of an officer near the end of that war, but in the process he loses his memory. Eventually he returns to his village and resumes his career as a barber, unaware that he is a dead ringer for the new leader of Germany, Adenoid Hynkel.

There has always been speculation that Hitler, a fan of the movies, wore what is known as a toothbrush mustache because it is the same ‘stache worn by Chaplin’s Little Tramp.

Hitler reportedly screened the The Great Dictator, which makes you wonder what he thought of the balloon globe scene, acted out to the ethereal sounds of the Prelude to Act I of Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, one of Hitler’s favorite operas and one he had first seen at the age of 12.

But perhaps the most famous scene from the film is Chaplin’s ending monologue of 600-some words, in which he seems to speak not as one of the characters in the film but as Chaplin trying to wake up the world. We reprint it here because it still has meaning today.

"I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone – if possible – Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness – not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

"Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…

"The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

"To those who can hear me, I say – do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed – the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish…

"Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes – men who despise you – enslave you – who regiment your lives – tell you what to do – what to think and what to feel! Who drill you – diet you – treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men – machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate – the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

"In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” – not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power – the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

"Then – in the name of democracy – let us use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world – a decent world that will give men a chance to work – that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!

"Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world – to do away with national barriers – to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!"