Confessions of a Nazi Spy: Warner Bros., Anti-Fascism and the Politicization of Hollywood
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Confessions of a Nazi Spy: Warner Bros., Anti-Fascism and the Politicization of Hollywood by Steven J. Ross Sometimes a single movie can awaken the political consciousness of a Today, six decades after Pearl Harbor, it is easy to talk nostalgically nation. The opening of D.W. Griffith’sThe Birth of a Nation in 1915 about World War II as the “Good War,” a war where the forces of ignited protests and heated debates throughout the country. Twenty- “good” and “evil” were seemingly easy for Americans to identify. four years later, the opening of Warner Bros.’ Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Although recent films such asSaving Private Ryan (1998) and The the first film to portray Nazis as a threat to America, sparked equally Thin Red Line (1998) reminded audiences of the horrors of that war, passionate responses. “The evening of April 27, 1939,” declared film they never questioned the wisdom of American involvement. But in critic Welford Beaton, “will go down in screen history as a memorable the mid 1930s, the real horror for politically engaged citizens was how one. It marked the first time in the annals of screen entertainment that few people wanted to hear about the lurking dangers of fascism or a picture ever really said something definite about current events, really the threats posed by the expansionist policies of Adolf Hitler, Benito took sides and argued for the side with which it sympathized.” In an Mussolini and Francisco Franco. emotional memo to Jack Warner, producer Lou Edelman proudly told his boss, “Last night, the motion picture had a Bar Mitzvah. It came of Confessions of a Nazi Spy was a milestone in American cinema. It was age. It said, ‘Today I am a man.’ Confessions of a Nazi Spy was proud of the first major studio production to take an explicit stand on foreign what it had to say and how it said it, and the world was very articulate policy and warn Americans about the dangers of a particular regime. in its approval, and compliments to the courage that it took to say it.”1 Film scholars refer to the 1930s as the “Golden Age of Hollywood,” a time when films were at their lavish best. But the 1930s were also the Not everyone was enamored with the film. Nazi sympathizers in decade when Hollywood emerged as a major force in the nation’s politi- Milwaukee burned down the local Warner Bros. theater shortly after cal life. Movie stars used their celebrity to bring attention to the dangers the movie opened. Angry citizens in other cities picketed theaters, posed by fascists abroad and at home. Although anti-fascist celebrities slashed seats and threatened exhibitors. In Poland, anti-Semitic were able to reach tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans, audiences hanged several theater owners in their movie houses for ex- politically engaged filmmakers wanted to reach millions. And no movie hibiting the film. Nazis banned the film everywhere they could exert moguls were more committed to fighting fascism than Harry and Jack pressure. For many people, Confessions of a Nazi Spy was more than Warner. At a time when few studios were willing to jeopardize lucrative just another movie.2 foreign sales, the Warner brothers produced a slew of highly politicized anti-fascist films:Black Legion (1937), Juarez (1939), Confessions of a 34. Edward G. Robinson as FBI man Edward Renard in Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), Espionage Agent (1939), British Intelligence (1940), Sea Nazi Spy (1939). Hawk (1940), Underground (1941) and Sea Wolf (1941). 48 WARNERS’ WAR: POLITICS, POP CULTURE & PROPAGANDA IN WARTIME HOLLYWOOD 49 35. An American Legionnaire This article examines the events that led to the making of Confessions Cagney, Sylvia Sidney and Gloria Stuart, had an estimated 4,000 Fox and MGM continued operating there until 1939). Things got (Ward Bond) confronts Nazis and the variety of reactions the studio encountered as it tried to dis- members and mounted frequent demonstrations, sponsored weekly worse for German Jews in the coming years: By 1935, Nuremberg at a Bund meeting in Confes- sions of a Nazi Spy (1939). seminate powerful messages to millions of Americans. The Warners’ radio shows, published their own newspaper and blockaded meet- Laws classified them as an inferior race and in 1938 anti-Semitic films proved so powerful that they prompted congressional investiga- ings of the Los Angeles German-American Bund. “There is hardly hatred exploded in Kristallnacht, when German mobs burned down tions of propaganda in motion pictures before and after World War a tea party today,” Ella Winter wrote in January 1938, “or a cocktail Jewish businesses. II—investigations that sent a chilling warning throughout the motion gathering, a studio lunch table or dinner even at a producer’s house picture industry about the dangers of political activism. at which you do not hear agitated discussion, talk of ‘freedom’ and Not all studio heads, not even Jewish ones like Louis B. Mayer and ‘suppression,’ talk of tyranny and the Constitution, of war, of world Adolph Zukor, were as worried about Nazism. Upon returning from The Rise of Anti-Fascist Hollywood economy and political theory.”4 Germany in 1934, MGM executive Irving Thalberg told Mayer that “a lot of Jews will lose their lives” but that “Hitler and Hitlerism will The 1930s did not mark the beginning of political activity in Hollywood’s actors, writers, directors and producers were at the pass; the Jews will still be there.” As late as August 1939, just one Hollywood. From the opening of the first nickelodeon in 1905, movies forefront of internationalist politics at a time when most Americans month prior to the Nazi invasion of Poland, Zukor told a reporter, and movie stars did more than simply entertain audiences. They rep- were still isolationists. A poll in November 1936 reported that 95% of “I don’t think that Hollywood should deal with anything but enter- resented a new means of political communication for a new century, Americans were opposed to United States participation in any potential tainment. The newsreels take care of current events.”8 a dangerous, and what many authorities regarded as a revolutionary, war. Three years later, a Gallup poll found that 42% of the public thought 36. Harry Warner and Louis means of communication that spoke directly to millions of Americans. it more important to investigate American war propaganda than to During the early 1930s, Warner Bros. produced scores of social prob- B. Mayer at a Red Cross Although silent films dealt with a wide variety of contentious political investigate the spread of Nazism, fascism or communism in America.5 lem films dealing with domestic ills caused by the Great Depression. fundraiser in 1940. issues, movie stars generally avoided the political spotlight. Studio By the mid 1930s, they turned their attention to foreign dangers and executives, noted Charlie Chaplin’s one-time assistant, feared “that if The Warner Brothers and the Rise of Anti-Fascist Cinema set out to use the screen to alert the nation to threats against demo- an actor took sides in any matter, he was bound to alienate a portion cracy. But they were constrained by Hollywood’s self-censorship of his public. And that was bad, as (theater magnate) Sid Grauman Committed anti-fascists knew they had to reach millions of board, the Production Code Administration (PCA), and its anti- would have said, ‘for the old box officeroo.’”3 Americans if they hoped to alter isolationist attitudes. Consequently, Semitic head, Joseph Breen, from making films that attacked or off-screen political activities were accompanied by on-screen activ- mocked foreign governments. Breen did little to hide his antipathy Celebrity attitudes toward politics changed in the 1930s as the dev- ism. Harry and Jack Warner were the unquestioned leaders of the for Jews. All that was wrong with Hollywood he blamed on the astating effects of the Great Depression, the election of Franklin D. anti-fascist cinematic crusade. No studio moguls were more devot- “lousy Jews” and insisted that “95%…are Eastern Jews, the scum of Roosevelt and the rapid spread of fascism in Europe politicized mil- edly anti-fascist and willing to put their money on the line than the the earth.” The studio heads, he wrote in 1932, were “simply a rotten lions of Americans and generated an unprecedented era of Hollywood Warner brothers. As Jack told a reporter in August 1936, studios bunch of vile people with no respect for anything beyond the making activism. As conditions at home and abroad worsened, movie industry “should strive for pictures that provide something more than a mere of money.”9 Breen did all he could to prevent the making of anti-Nazi personnel began to question their responsibility as citizens to stand idle hour or two of entertainment.”6 films or any film with openly sympathetic reference to Jews. up for ideas and causes they believed in, or against forces they felt threatened American democracy. Given the large numbers of Jews, For the Warners, fighting fascism in general and anti-Semitism in The brothers soon figured out a way to get around Code restrictions: European émigrés, liberals and radicals that populated Hollywood in particular was a deeply personal commitment. As the sons of a cobbler They would make obliquely anti-fascist movies based on real events. the 1930s, it is not surprising that anti-fascism emerged as the focal who fled deadly pogroms in Poland and immigrated to Baltimore in Black Legion, which opened in New York on January 16, 1937, told point of political action. 1883, Harry and Jack, the oldest and youngest of four brothers, felt the true story of a domestic fascist organization that wrought murder a deep commitment to helping Jews in America and abroad.