My second chess movie is Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 The Great Dictator, chapter 8: Barber of the Ghetto. It’s a simple three-panel study: A board with pieces in position, a move, and a zoomed-out view of the players.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the position. The problem is that white is in check, so it must be white’s turn to move. Yet, in the movie, black makes the move. To be fair, chess has been used in the movies mostly as a prop: No one expects the audience to be able to pause, zoom, and analyze the minutiae of the game — further complicated in this instance by the stylistic shape of the pieces.