---
title: "Monsieur Verdoux: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/monsieur-verdoux/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/monsieur-verdoux"
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 7
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Monsieur Verdoux (1947): what the critics said

Critics' score 74 from 7 reviews: 5 positive, 1 mixed, 1 negative.

Most critics respond warmly to Monsieur Verdoux, praising Chaplin’s combination of black comedy and an attack on social hypocrisy. The praise centres on the contrast between Verdoux’s refined manners and his ruthlessness, and on comic invention that gives the film’s bleak ideas a practical outlet. The AV Club and Empire particularly value the scenes with Martha Raye, where Chaplin’s carefully arranged visual gags receive some of their strongest notices.

The spread is wide, however, with disagreement over whether the comedy works at all. Empire acknowledges that the humour does not always produce outright laughter, without treating that as a serious failing. Variety takes a much harsher view: it finds the comic foundations unsound, little sympathy in Chaplin’s performance and occasional disjointedness in his direction. Its praise goes instead to his score, leaving it sharply opposed to the favourable majority.

## Slant Magazine — Josh Vasquez

Rating 4/4. 21 March 2004. 

Vasquez argues that the film remains urgent and essential, with its bleak humor still strikingly contemporary. He praises Chaplin’s blending of comic inventiveness with a blackly poetic critique of capitalism and moral confusion.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/monsieur-verdoux/)

## The AV Club — Noel Murray

Rating A-. 27 March 2013. 

Murray finds the film an assured blend of suspense and pitch-black comedy, with a sharp argument about society’s moral contradictions. He especially praises the scenes with Martha Raye, whose character gives Chaplin’s visual-gag skills room to shine.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/monsieur-verdoux-1798176248)

## Radio Times — Tom Hutchinson

Rating 4/5. 

Hutchinson calls it Chaplin’s greatest later sound film and praises its chilling black comedy. He singles out the final speech for linking the killer’s actions to those of major political powers.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-kj6mlm/monsieur-verdoux/)

## Empire — empire

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 

The review considers Chaplin’s film a work of real greatness, though its dark comedy is not always laugh-out-loud funny. It praises the carefully choreographed gags, especially Martha Raye’s repeated failures to die.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/monsieur-verdoux-review/)

## The New Yorker — Richard Brody

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 7 April 2013. 

Brody presents the film as an elaborate, sharply subversive work that dismantles Chaplin’s familiar screen persona. He singles out the elegant irony linking Verdoux’s refined manners and murderous ruthlessness to Chaplin’s attack on hypocritical morality.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/04/15/comedy-terrors)

## Time Out — GB

Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 

The accessible page confirms this is a review but does not reveal the critic’s verdict. Its metadata describes Chaplin’s film as a self-styled “comedy of murders” about a man who marries wealthy women.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/monsieur-verdoux)

## Variety — Variety Staff

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1946. 

The review finds the comedy’s fundamentals unsound and says Chaplin generates little sympathy. It singles out Chaplin’s score as above par, while criticizing the direction as occasionally disjointed.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/1946/film/reviews/monsieur-verdoux-1200415055/)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/monsieur-verdoux.md