Charlie Chaplin abandoned all vestiges of the tramp character and, doing a complete turnabout, emerged as a modern Bluebeard. Dapper, silver-haired Parisian Henri Verdoux, having become unemployable during the French economic recession of the twenties, turns to supporting his invalid wife and young son by the singular method of marrying an assortment of wealthy women, and then murdering them for their money. Audiences in 1947 recoiled in horror at these immoral goings-on, providing Chaplin with his first popular failure. The theme of Monsieur Verdoux resembles Brecht's intentions in several plays: to show that the individual murderer - “the small businessman in murder,” as Chaplin's character states in the film - is regarded as a criminal in bourgeois society, while big business, the munitions manufacturers and the professional soldiers who contribute to murder on a mass scale are given great honors and rewards. Today, Monsieur Verdoux is widely regarded as Chaplin's greatest work.