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identified Hitler as a threat to American security
and personally requested that Hollywood
begin to feature support for Western Europe
– and in particular Great Britain – within their
motion pictures. For the first half of 1940,
this support for Britain was historically
disguised in such movies as
The Sea
Hawk,
where Philip of Spain stood for
Hitler and the Armada as the Luftwaffe.
But in August 1940, the German Embassy
complained bitterly to the White House
about the content of English-born Alfred
Hitchcock’s
Foreign Correspondent
. In this
movie, Joel McCrea plays an American
reporter in war-torn London who delivers a
clear message to America to get involved
in the European conflict. It was this film
that prompted an enraged Hitler to ban
all American motion pictures from the
European countries now under Germany’s
control.
Hollywood’s gloves now came
off and they stepped up their war-
related productions. Tyrone Power
starred in
A Yank in the R.A.F.
, and
Gary Cooper portrayed the WWI US
hero
Sergeant York.
Future US president
Ronald Reagan starred in
International
Squadron,
the true story of the R.A.F.’s
foreign legion squadron who fought
in the Battle of Britain; and Charlie
Chaplin made
The Great Dictator,
featuring
himself as the fascist leader, Adenoid
Hynkel – a direct caricature of Hitler.
However, not all Americans were
comfortable with these type of movies.
Amongst the US Congress and Senate were
many vociferous isolationists who believed that
Hollywood’s war propaganda motion pictures
would drag America into another unwanted
European conflict. These anti-war voices were
completely silenced on the first Sunday of
December, 1941, when the Japanese attacked
the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, and four
days later Germany and Italy, honouring their
pact with Japan, declared war on the United
States.
Roosevelt’s US War Information Agency (a
forerunner of the CIA) swung into action and
supplied Hollywood with a list of subjects
they ordered the film studios to concentrate
on: The enemy – Japan, Germany and Italy; the
Allies; the US armed forces; the production and
home fronts.
Hollywood went to war with gusto and
churned out countless patriotic war films from
1942 through to 1945. Many of them became
classics, but one of particular importance as a
powerful morale booster for the Allies cannot
be overstated. The final scene of MGM's
award-winning
Mrs. Miniver
(1942) was
set in a bomb devastated, roofless church
somewhere in England. The actor Henry
Wilcoxon, portraying a vicar, addresses his
small congregation thus “...this is not only a war
of soldiers in uniform. It is a war of the people
and it must be fought not only on the battlefield
but in the cities, the villages, the factories, on
the farms and in the home. This is the people’s
war and we must fight it with all that is in us
and may God defend the right for us to
do so”. British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill stated that
Mrs. Miniver
was
propaganda well worth 100 battleships.
The vicar’s sermon was so moving that
copies were printed in various languages
and dropped by allied aircraft over all of
occupied Europe.
America emerged fromWWII as a
leading global power, and Hollywood, with
its massive output of patriotic
films, considered it had played a vital
role in the US attaining that position.
Americans had flocked to see these
movies in ever increasing numbers
throughout the war years, and the
industry had seen weekly domestic ticket
sales increase from 80 million in 1940 to
90 million by 1945.
Briefly it appeared that the “war boom”
of prosperity would last, as the studio
system continued to work at maximum
efficiency to maintain the volume of
films audiences seemingly demanded.
Indeed, the film industry enjoyed its most
profitable year ever in 1946, with over 100
million weekly ticket sales that generated
$1.7 billion gross. Amongst the 240 films
released in 1946 was
The Best Years of
Our Lives,
which won the Best Picture
Academy Award. The topical film dealt with
the problems of returning veterans who had
survived combat.
Ironically the movie’s title would also reflect
the zenith of Hollywood profits, for never
again would the studios reach the heights
they attained in 1946. Furthermore, a mere
two years later, certain events would bring
about the decline and eventual fall of the
Hollywood Studio System.
To be continued...
17
EXTRAS
Top left: Poster for
A Yank in the R.A.F
. (1941)
Above: Poster for
International Squadron
(1941)
Charlie Chaplin as Adenoid Hynkel
in
T
he Great Dictator
(1940)
The vicar delivers his sermon in
Mrs. Miniver
(1943)
Three veterans
return home in
The
Best Years of Our
Lives
(1946)