U.S. "Propaganda" Films
Films named in 1941 (September 9-26) Senate Subcommittee (to the Interstate Commerce Committee) Hearings on Propaganda in Motion Pictures
Senators Nye, Clark and Wheeler attacked Hollywood for war-mongering in these films, violating the spirit of the Neutrality Act. The subcommittee adjourned near the end of September, and became moot on December 7 before they had a chance to reconvene.
Transcript of hearings was accessed on 8 Dec 2014 and on 21-25 Mar 2015 here:
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015020646066
This site can translate an individual page into text, and is searchable. Page numbers below refer to this transcript.
Some titles were mentioned, particularly on pages 114-5, which I could not find in IMDb, or which I could not disambiguate. Other titles were mentioned, but not as propaganda, so I did not include them here. Since the transcript is 450 pages long, and I could only visually scan the text, additional titles may have been mentioned in the hearings that do not appear in this list.
For the purposes of this committee, propaganda is "designed to influence the public mind in the direction of participation in the European war."
I can't claim to have read the entire transcript, but the hearings got off-topic a lot. Seldom did they elaborate on what was supposed to be inflamatory about the movies mentioned.
Four movie moguls testified: Barney Balaban (Paramount), Nicholas Schenck (Loew's, i.e. MGM), Harry Warner (WB), Darryl Zanuck (Fox). Warner's testimony was worth reading, except when the senators took it off-topic.
Fascinating testimony on September 24, 1941 (page 327) by Nicholas Schenck, president of Loew's, Inc. (MGM films): when asked if he would make films that would make one race of people hate another, he replied he would not if it was a nice decent race. Spain was a candidate for an indecent race, but Japan was a nice, decent race. This is only 2.5 months before Pearl Harbor, and a full 10 years after Japan invaded Manchuria, but Schenck is unaware of Japan's aggressions? And no senator corrects him!
Later (page 332), a senator asks him about referencing Russian atrocities on film, said to be at least as severe as those in Germany, and Schenck doesn't think they're as bad, and at least they're doing it to themselves, and no one has written a book about it. (The Mortal Storm originated as a book.)
Production/distribution companies below come from IMDb, not the transcript.
Scorecard:
14 British
7 Warner Brothers
5 MGM
4 Columbia
3 Paramount
3 Twentieth Century Fox
3 other
Senators Nye, Clark and Wheeler attacked Hollywood for war-mongering in these films, violating the spirit of the Neutrality Act. The subcommittee adjourned near the end of September, and became moot on December 7 before they had a chance to reconvene.
Transcript of hearings was accessed on 8 Dec 2014 and on 21-25 Mar 2015 here:
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015020646066
This site can translate an individual page into text, and is searchable. Page numbers below refer to this transcript.
Some titles were mentioned, particularly on pages 114-5, which I could not find in IMDb, or which I could not disambiguate. Other titles were mentioned, but not as propaganda, so I did not include them here. Since the transcript is 450 pages long, and I could only visually scan the text, additional titles may have been mentioned in the hearings that do not appear in this list.
For the purposes of this committee, propaganda is "designed to influence the public mind in the direction of participation in the European war."
I can't claim to have read the entire transcript, but the hearings got off-topic a lot. Seldom did they elaborate on what was supposed to be inflamatory about the movies mentioned.
Four movie moguls testified: Barney Balaban (Paramount), Nicholas Schenck (Loew's, i.e. MGM), Harry Warner (WB), Darryl Zanuck (Fox). Warner's testimony was worth reading, except when the senators took it off-topic.
Fascinating testimony on September 24, 1941 (page 327) by Nicholas Schenck, president of Loew's, Inc. (MGM films): when asked if he would make films that would make one race of people hate another, he replied he would not if it was a nice decent race. Spain was a candidate for an indecent race, but Japan was a nice, decent race. This is only 2.5 months before Pearl Harbor, and a full 10 years after Japan invaded Manchuria, but Schenck is unaware of Japan's aggressions? And no senator corrects him!
Later (page 332), a senator asks him about referencing Russian atrocities on film, said to be at least as severe as those in Germany, and Schenck doesn't think they're as bad, and at least they're doing it to themselves, and no one has written a book about it. (The Mortal Storm originated as a book.)
Production/distribution companies below come from IMDb, not the transcript.
Scorecard:
14 British
7 Warner Brothers
5 MGM
4 Columbia
3 Paramount
3 Twentieth Century Fox
3 other
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- 42 titles
- DirectorsMervyn LeRoyGeorge CukorStarsNorma ShearerRobert TaylorConrad VeidtIn 1936, a young man arrives in Hitler's Germany, frantically seeking information about his missing German mother, and finds she is pending execution at a concentration camp.(MGM) p.20-1, 35, 58, 60, 113, 172, 178, 201, 208, 247, 271, 328-9, 420
- DirectorPen TennysonStarsClive BrookJohn ClementsEdward ChapmanA tale of the highs and lows of life protecting the vital convoys between America & England during WWII.(British: Ealing Studios, distributed in US by RKO) p.35, 50, 60, 113
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsRobert TaylorRuth HusseyWalter PidgeonRookie pilot Alan Drake joins the elite Hellcats Squadron. After a rough start with a forced landing and poor performance, he faces rejection when falsely accused of an affair with the CO's wife, but redeems himself through heroic action.(MGM) p.35, 60, 113, 271, 329, 333
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardJack OakieDictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.(Charles Chaplin Productions, distr. United Artists) p.35, 60, 163, 165, 170-1, 180, 202, 209-10, 420
- DirectorIrving PichelStarsJoan BennettFrancis LedererLloyd NolanAnti-Nazi tract laced with 1938 newsreel footage finds American girl (Bennett) married to a German (Lederer) gradually learning he is a Nazi, trying to get their son to America.(Twentieth Century Fox) p.35, 57, 59-60, 114, 121-2, 171, 175, 208, 411, 420-1; often listed as I Married a Nazi
- DirectorFritz LangStarsWalter PidgeonJoan BennettGeorge SandersIn July 1939, British hunter Thorndike, vacationing in Bavaria, has Hitler in his gun sight. He is captured, beaten, left for dead, and escapes back to London where he is hounded by German agents and aided by a young woman.(Twentieth Century Fox) p.35, 50, 60, 114, 116, 121, 163, 171, 173, 199, 208, 380, 411, 419-20
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsGary CooperWalter BrennanJoan LeslieA Tennessee farmer and marksman is drafted in World War I, and struggles with his pacifist inclinations before becoming one of the most celebrated war heroes.(Warner Bros.) p.35, 50, 52, 60, 89, 208, 333, 339-40, 343, 345, 348-50, 366-8, 420
- DirectorAlexander KordaStarsVivien LeighLaurence OlivierAlan MowbrayThe story of courtesan and dance-hall girl Emma Hamilton, including her relationships with Sir William Hamilton and Admiral Horatio Nelson, and her rise and fall, set during the Napoleonic Wars.(British: London Film Productions, US distr. United Artists) p.35, 60, 81, 87, 116-7, 123-4
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsMargaret SullavanJames StewartRobert YoungThe Roth family leads a quiet life in a small Alpine village until they are divided by the Nazi regime and a friend is caught up in the turmoil.(MGM) p.54, 113, 163, 171, 175-6, 201, 208, 271, 275, 324-33, 380, 382, 386
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsEdward G. RobinsonGeorge SandersFrancis LedererFBI agent Ed Renard investigates the pre-war espionage activities of the German-American Bund.(Warner Bros.) p.60, 81, 113, 119, 150-1, 172, 179, 200-1, 339, 343-5, 367, 370-1, 420
- DirectorRoy BoultingStarsWilfrid LawsonNova PilbeamSeymour HicksThis film is based on the story of Pastor Martin Neimuller, who was sent to Dachau concentration camp for criticizing the Nazi party. The small German village of Altdorf in the 1930s has to come to terms with Chancellor Hitler and the arrival of a platoon of Stormtroopers who go about teaching and enforcing "The New Order", but Pastor Hall is a kind and gentle man who won't be cowed. Some villagers join the Nazi party avidly, some just go along with things, hoping for a quiet life, but Pastor Hall takes his convictions to the pulpit.(British: Charter Film Productions, US distr. United Artists) p.60, 115, 123, 163, 171, 176-7
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsJeffrey LynnPhilip DornKaren VerneA World War II Hollywood propaganda film detailing the dark underside of Nazism and the Third Reich set between two brothers, Kurt and Erik Franken, who are SS officers in the Nazi party. Kurt learns and exposes the evils of the system to Erik and tries to convince him of the immoral stance that marches under the symbol of the swastika.(Warner Bros.) p.81, 113, 116, 120, 163, 171-3, 200, 339, 343, 345, 350, 367, 371-2, 374-6, 378, 382, 384, 386, 420, 430
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsErrol FlynnFred MacMurrayRalph BellamyA military surgeon teams with a ranking Navy flyer to develop a high-altitude suit which will protect pilots from blacking out when they go into a steep dive.(Warner Bros.) p.81, 113, 208, 346, 352, 357
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsEdward G. RobinsonEdna BestEddie AlbertStarting with a small flock of carrier pigeons, nineteenth-century entrepreneur Julius Reuter turns his small company into Europe's most respected news wire service.(Warner Bros.) p.113, 346
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsRonald ReaganJohn LitelLya LysThe corpse of a hobo with a $50,000 money belt helps Brass and Gabby crack a cell of fifth columnists bent on sabotage.(Warner Bros.) p.113
- DirectorHerbert WilcoxStarsAnna NeagleEdna May OliverGeorge SandersAn English nurse with a great reputation for her work in Belgian hospitals, becomes outraged at the number of Allied soldiers detained in German prisoner-of-war camps during World War I, and devises a secret plan to help hundreds escape.(Imperadio Pictures Ltd., distr. RKO) p.113
- DirectorGeorge B. SeitzStarsWalter PidgeonDonald MeekKaren VerneA body is found in a locked airplane compartment and a German female refugee is a suspect. Passenger, detective Nick Carter, is convinced she didn't do it and works to solve the mysterious murder.(MGM) p.113
- DirectorS. Sylvan SimonStarsFrank MorganAnn RutherfordKent TaylorA newsman links his fiancée's millionaire father to a chorus girl's murder.(MGM) p.114, 131
- DirectorJohn BrahmStarsPat O'BrienConstance BennettJohn HallidayA British ship is attacked by a German U-boat at the onset of World War II. The reactions of the frightened passengers-from a German doctor to a drunken Irishman-are chronicled in this good story.(Columbia) p.114
- DirectorAlbert de CourvilleStarsEdmund GwennMary MaguirePaul HenreidAn enemy force attempts to invade London.(British: Aldwych Films, US distr. Columbia) p.114, 122, 171, 174-5
- DirectorTim WhelanStarsRex HarrisonKaren VerneC.V. FranceBob Stevens (Sir Rex Harrison) awakens in a hospital with a gunshot wound to his head, and is told that he has been in Paris for ten days. However, this cannot be true because he insists that he crashed his plane and has no recollection of being anywhere for ten days. Bob decides to follow a note found in his jacket, to the woman who wrote it, "Miss D", and get to the bottom of the whole strange situation.(British: Irving Asher Productions, US distr. Columbia) p.114, listed as Missing Ten Days
- DirectorCharles BartonStarsBruce BennettAnita LouiseOscar O'SheaOn the night before he sails in search of the steamship Arcadia's sunken gold, Paul Sinclair (Bruce Bennett) meets Madeleine Neilson (Anita Louise) in a San Francisco nightclub. On the second day at sea, Madeleine turns up as a stowaway. While diving and searching for the sunken gold off the Philippines, Paul discovers that a foreign submarine has been laying mines in order to completely cut off the Philippines from American protection.(Columbia) p.114, 172, 185
- DirectorsJames WhaleVictor FlemingCharles VidorStarsGeorge BrentMartha ScottPaul LukasAn Austrian prince flees his homeland after the Nazis take over and settles in London. While in London, he meets a beautiful Austrian émigré who makes him realize his mistake in leaving Austria. He makes a deal with the Nazis to return in exchange for some Austrian prisoners, but discovers that the Nazis are not to be trusted.(Columbia) p.114, 163, 171, 173-4; (incorrectly) listed as British
- DirectorAnthony AsquithStarsClive BrookDiana WynyardRaymond HuntleyHitler's doctor is gradually realizing that the Nazi regime isn't as good as it pretends to be when his friends start disappearing into the camps. His wife is courted by the party and accepts a political post in Berlin. Meanwhile, Dr. Karl decides to try to do something to counteract Nazi propaganda and, with the help of an engineer and a few friends, he sets up the Freedom Radio to hinder Nazi propaganda.(British: Two Cities Films, US distr. Columbia) p.114, 124, 171, 177
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJoel McCreaLaraine DayHerbert MarshallOn the eve of World War II, a young American reporter tries to expose enemy agents in London.(Walter Wanger Productions, distr. United Artists) p.114, 172, 182
