Monsieur Verdoux
Henri Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin) lies dead in his grave, marked 1880-1937. He is there because he engaged in "liquidating members of the opposite sex" as a business enterprise during the Depression after he lost his job of 35 years at the bank. In a flashback to several years earlier, the Couvais family worries about Thelma Couvais's disappearance since she married a man named Varnay. "Who'd spend three month honeymooning with Thelma?" they all ask. The police suspect a "bluebeard" has married and killed at least 12 women from different French cites for their money. Meanwhile in the south of France, Verdoux, using his alias Varnay, has disposed of Thelma's body in an incinerator. He counts the murder woman's money and calls the local stock market in Paris to invest it. Widow Madame Grosnay (Isobel Elsom) comes to look at the vacant house that Verdoux (impersonating a real estate agent) is trying to sell. She doesn't buy it because Varnay/Verdoux scares her off with his brazen advances. Verdoux returns to his home in Paris where he owns a furniture store... a front for his other illegal activities. Told that he needs money in a hurry or he'll be wiped out, Verdoux hops a train and visits another one of his wives, Lydia Floray (Margaret Hoffman)., who thinks that he works as an engineer. He convinces her to withdraw some money, and when she does, he kills her. Verdoux goes to his house in the countryside, where his real wife (Mady Correl), who is an invalid, and their son Peter live. He presents her with the deed to the house and garden. Although she is unaware of the murderous enterprise that supports her, she can see that he is under great stress. He explains that the times are desperate and many people in France are starving. She is glad that he has a job as a bank teller. Verdoux goes to Lyons to visit another wife, Annabella Bonheur (Martha Raye), in which she thinks that he is a ship captain and he assures her he thinks of her "even on the poop deck." He buys poison to kill her, but the unexpected arrival their maid ruins his plans. Verdoux/Varnay starts sending daily flowers to Madame Grosnay to break down her resistance. Verdoux learns of a painless poison from his chemist friend Morris. He picks up the Girl (Marilyn Nash), a pretty, homeless teenager and brings her back to his Paris apartment over the furniture store. He plans to test his poison on her, but he changes his mind when she realizes she thinks life is beautiful and that she also took care of an invalid whom was her recently deceased father. The Girl is visibly touched when Verdoux gives her some money. However, he poisons the police detective on his trail. Verdoux/Bonheur tries to poison Annabella, but the bottles get switched around. The maid puts the poison on her head thinking that its a hair solution, but it makes her hair fall out. He puts peroxide into Annabella's wine, which he accidentally drinks. Next, he takes her to a deserted lake and tries to drown her, but he falls in the water instead. Madame Grosnay's resistance breaks down and she agrees to marry Verdoux/Varney, but he must sneak out of the wedding ceremony when Annabella arrives as a guest. A little later in 1929, Verdoux is wiped out when the stock market crashes. He decides to stop killing women. In 1937, the Girl, who is wealthy because a munitions manufacturer fell in love with her, takes the broke but still dapper Verdoux to a nightclub. He reveals to her that his invalid wife and son are dead. She wants to help him move on. There, Lena Couvais, the murdered Thelma's sister, recognizes him and calls the police. Verdoux has a chance to escape, but depressed over losing everything, gives himself up to the police. In court at his trial, he blames the war-hungry world powers for having them encourages his mass killing, but he doesn't repent or accept any guilt for his crimes. Verdoux is sentenced to death by guillotine.
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