CineMontage

Winter 2017

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17 Q1 2017 / CINEMONTAGE THIS QUARTER IN FILM HISTORY staff. Breen apparently did not notice that Chaplin had not made all the changes they had requested. In his autobiography, the comedian noted, "Breen turned to the rest. 'I think it's all right… Let it go!' he said abruptly. There was silence. Then someone said, 'Well, it's okay by me; there's no cleavage.' The others were glum." With the film's opening less than a month away, advertising for Verdoux was planned to capitalize on Chaplin's radical departure from the Tramp character. In an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oral History, famed title designer Saul Bass told of working as a designer for the movie's ad agency: Bold type across the one-sheet depicting the dapper murderer read, "BE PREPARED! CHAPLIN CHANGES! CAN YOU?" Mary Pickford, one of the artist's partners in the 1919 founding of United Artists, accompanied Chaplin and his wife to the New York premiere; they were not prepared to find a column in the Daily News attacking him as a "fellow traveler." A press conference for the film was arranged in the Grand Ballroom of the Gotham Hotel for the day after its opening. George Wallach, who recorded it for broadcast on radio station WNEW, said, "It was more like an inquisition than a press conference." The first question put to the filmmaker was, "Are you a Communist?" He was then denounced for never becoming an American citizen and harangued to define his political beliefs. Stating that he considered himself "a citizen of the world," Chaplin said that he paid US taxes for his entire income, including the 70 percent of it that was earned abroad. Defending his film, he said, "I feel this is an adult picture and that the satire is bitter… I think there is a lot of hate in the world and…these are very troublesome days." On June 13, a HUAC member, Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi, called for the artist's deportation so that "his loathsome pictures can be kept from the eyes of American youth. His very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America." The following month, HUAC Chair J. Parnell Thomas of New Jersey issued a subpoena for Chaplin to appear in front of the committee. On July 21, in a telegram to committee members, Chaplin wrote, "I suggest you view carefully my latest production, Monsieur Verdoux… I trust you will not find its humane message distasteful… I am not a Communist. I am a peacemonger." After the committee postponed Chaplin's appearance three times, it finally sent a direct reply to his telegram stating that his appearance would not be necessary. Still, throughout the film's release, the American Legion, the Catholic War Veterans and other patriotic groups boycotted and picketed theatres. Bookings were canceled and the city of Memphis even banned its screening there. In 1952, Chaplin completed his last Hollywood film, Limelight. On September 17, he sailed with his family on the Queen Elizabeth from New York City to London for the movie's world premiere. Two days later, US Attorney General James McGranery rescinded British citizen Chaplin's re-entry permit and ordered the Immigration and Naturalization Service to hold him for hearings if he tried to re-enter the country. Upon formally giving up his re-entry permit, the moviemaker publicly stated: "I have been the object of lies and vicious propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and with the aid of America's yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted." In April 1972, Chaplin returned to the United States to accept an Honorary Oscar for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century." He was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's history. Richard Nixon, a freshman Congressman and member of HUAC when Verdoux was released, was then President of the United States. f Monsieur Verdoux. Charles Chaplin/Photofest

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