Monsieur Verdoux - Production

Production

The script for this film, the idea for it given by Orson Welles, was inspired by the case of serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Welles sought to direct the film with Chaplin as star, but Chaplin backed out at the last minute, on the grounds that he'd never been directed by somebody else in a full length feature film before and wasn't willing to start (which was not technically correct since he was directed in one feature film during his Keystone days.) Instead, Chaplin bought the script from Welles and rewrote parts of it, crediting Welles only with the idea. Welles later expressed regret at his only being credited with the idea, since he maintained that most of the final film was a verbatim copy of his script, with Chaplin's only major writing contribution being the gallows scenes. Welles believed that a version directed by him would have been better, as he considered Chaplin a "genius" as an actor, but merely competent as a director; however, Welles urgently needed money, and so signed away all rights to the script.

Another story suggests that although the script had yet to be written, Welles wanted Chaplin to play the lead role. Chaplin, deciding that he didn't want to have to write the script with Welles, opted out, saying in effect "If it isn't written yet, I'm not interested." After seeing the film, Welles insisted on receiving a screen credit for the story idea.

The lead character kills to make money, hence he is not (in his eyes) a murderer. Since the film is a talking picture, there is some comedy in the dialogue as well as some physical comedy. Chaplin tended to work with a repertory company of actors who performed exclusively in Chaplin's films. Monsieur Verdoux, atypically for a Chaplin film, features some familiar Hollywood actors, including Martha Raye, William Frawley and Fritz Leiber, Sr.. Rumors have persisted that Chaplin's 1915-1923 leading lady Edna Purviance made an appearance in the film. Chaplin biographer David Robinson wrote that Purviance did return briefly to the Chaplin Studios and prepared for a small role in the film, but that she did not go before the cameras.