New side chapter revised and this time expanded by Sorairo especially in the last paragraphs, enjoy!
At the Service of the Nation: American Cinema and Politics in the 1940s by George Balmer
The 1940s would become a turning point for the American film industry, which would see her private domain becoming worldwide due to WW2, which disrupted the European movie production. save for the Italian one. despite the ideologic barriers of fascism, Italy was commencing a period of rejuvenation and experimentation which would flourish in the 1950s, with Rome and Cinecittà starting to rival with Los Angeles and the Studios of Hollywood.
The decade would be open with what would be considered the most controversial movie of its time: the
Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin (1940). Chaplin made the movie against any form of intolerance (in particular against the Jews), war and form of dictatorship, in particular Hitler’s, with a final eulogy to peace and hope. However, despite initial success in the US, he would face growing criticism from various European groups and inside his home country as the war progressed.
The major controversy would focus over the segment where the dictator Hynkel would meet the leader of his neighbor country, Napoloni, to discuss the fate of Osterreich; which was a not subtle jibe about Mussolini in general and his support towards the Austrian Anschluss specificly. Naturally, in 1940 the movie was rejected by Italian authorities, and articles were written in the country to shame Chaplin – albeit remaining into the Italian clout. Still, it is said that in private Mussolini asked to see the movie and was amused by his caricature and the movie in general.
However, in 1943/4 things changed, as Italy and the US were suddenly allied against the Germans. The news of the battle of Trieste came over the Atlantic soon after. Even if four years passed since the distribution of the movie, a new wave of criticism started to surge between the Italian immigrants and the Jew communities towards the movie and Chaplin – the former feeling that putting Germans and Italians on the same level was at this point unacceptable, the second feeling disgusted that a man who had saved so many Jews was put on the same level as the ultimate Jew-hater, the dimensions of his crime still only being revealed layer by layer. New York in particular was the centre of this criticism, which targeted Chaplin in truth as part of a growing criticism towards Roosevelt, appearing too anti-Italian and pro-Soviet.
The Italian consulate likely contributed to expand this criticism, also through a diffusion of articles criticizing Chaplin in a more refined way. This was for aside for the portrait of Mussolini, “the wrong assumption about the events leading to the Anchsluss” as Italy was forced to cave about it due to the missed support of Britain and France, and even more the indifference of America, hence calling Chaplin hypocrite. This was a veiled way to call Roosevelt hypocrite.
There were however calls towards Chaplin about a compromise if he accepted to make a cut version without the presence of Napoloni, with the Italian consulate even opening to the possibility the revised movie being projected in Italy… but Chaplin refused bluntly, stating: “A Tyrant is not less of one because he saves as many as he kills.” This stance would receive the praise and the approval of Roosevelt, especially as his opinion of Mussolini worsened after the Kiev conference, and was willing to scoff away such criticism, believing it to be irrelevant. But in private, the New York Democrats started to wonder if they would have to worry for the loss of support in the Empire State – especially from wealthy Jewish and Italian donors; after all if in 1942 the Republicans won the gubernatorial race and if the voices the ruling governor Dewey would cling his party’s nomination would turn true, there were chances if the state would flip red in that November could lose the local senatorial seat as well, at the time held by Robert F. Wagner, which despite being a strong supporter of Roosevelt, was a German born emigrate.
Initially, Wagner and the bulk of the New York Democrats weren’t worried… but then Roosevelt died. Wallace became president a month before the Democratic convention and the Nazi chemical attacks on American troops happened. Even if Wallace managed to cling the nomination, the political temperature in the Empire State started to rise, with Republican senatorial candidate Thomas J. Curran receiving growing financial support from Italian and above all Jewish supporters, allowing him to expand his electoral campaign considerably, and so Dewey for his campaign as well. With a troublesome President and his German roots resurfacing, Wagner and the New York Democrats were practically on the defensive with only Black voters being consistently loyal, but even then concerned by Wallace’s abilities.
At this point, at least in New York, the Democratic defence over Chaplin started to falter. The Republicans saw an opening to attack him for having "Communist sympathies" in denigrating Mussolini through his movie, and therefore involving the Wallace administration as well for protecting him. Perhaps it worked, as the Democrats hung onto control throughout the Empire State, at least that year, but the damage on Chaplin’s reputation was heard around the world. Such attacks were so nasty and controversial that even after the war several European countries hesitated to allow the projection of the movie, not only in the Roman Alliance. Israel debated harshly whether to allow a screening or not, before finally deciding to go ahead. Early screenings of the film were firebombed by the Lehi who saw the film as a British attempt to undermine Italy and Israel’s ‘Holy Brotherhood’.
Chaplin would leave the U.S. in 1946, saying that it had become unliveable due to the Second Red Scare. Ultimately, as news of what was going on in Stalinist Russia became apparent, Chaplin grew disillusioned with his former ambivalence to Communism, releasing his final film, ‘The Other Great Dictator’ in 1953, just months after Stalin’s death. It was the inverse of The Great Dictator, as it dealt with Stalin over Hitler, only Chaplin didn’t play Stalin owing to the obvious propaganda victory it would give his enemies. He would reprise his role as the Barber from The Great Dictator, overjoyed at the liberation of his homeland from Hynkel, only to have the same exact misery befall his country. The film ends on a much bleaker note, with the Barber escaping to Israel, wondering if man is doomed to hate and kill forever. The film would relieve most of the bad will Chaplin accumulated, though he would never return to the United States for any purpose but to accept an honorary Academy Award. He died on Christmas Day 1977.
