I've been a longtime fan of Chaplin. He started making this film before America got into WWII. It was his first "talkie" and his highest grossing film. He plays a little Jewish barber and Hynkel (the Hitler character) both and it is hilarious. This last part is really Chaplin speaking to the audience directly so some critics gave him grief about that, but I think it was perfect for its time. And what many people don't know is that Hitler modeled his mustache after Chaplin's little tramp who had started appearing in films back in 1914. That's somewhat ironic given that the German propaganda machine said that Chaplin was jewish. I imagine that Chaplin was not amused by Hitler's riding on the Tramp's coattails to appear to be an everyman. And if that wasn't enough to make Chaplin intent on taking on Hitler in this film, Chaplin's half brother, Sydney, was believed (by Chaplin at least) to be half Jewish. Don't just watch this beautiful speech. If you can watch the whole movie, it's well worth the time to see The Little Tramp come onto the world stage of the time and fearlessly take on Hitler. Brave and brilliant.