Monsieur Verdoux (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)

Charlie Chaplin plays shockingly against type in his most controversial film, a brilliant and bleak black comedy about money, marriage, and murder. Chaplin is a twentieth-century Bluebeard, an enigmatic family man who goes to extreme lengths to support his wife and child, attempting to bump off a series of wealthy widows (including one played by the indefatigable Martha Raye, in a hilarious performance). This deeply philosophical and wildly entertaining film is a work of true sophistication, both for the moral questions it dares to ask and the way it deconstructs it's megastar's loveable on-screen persona.

Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Charles Chaplin, Allison Roddan, Audrey Betz, Martha Raye, Ada-May, Isobel Elsom, Marjorie Bennett, Marilyn Nash, Edwin Mills, Virginia Brissac, Addison Richards, Barry Norton, Boyd Irwin, Charles Wagenheim, Cyril Delevanti, Eddie Mills, Edna Purviance, Franklin Farnum, Fred Karno, Herb Vigran, James Craven, Paul Newlan, Warren Ashe, Wheaton Chambers, Mady Correll, Robert Lewis, Helene Heigh, Margaret Hoffman, Irving Bacon, Almira Sessions, Eula Morgan, Bernard J. Nedell, Charles Evans, William Frawley, Arthur Hohl, Barbara Slater, Fritz Leiber, Vera Marshe, John Harmon, Frank Reicher, Joseph Crehan, Pierre Watkin

Director: Charles Chaplin