Picturing “the Tightest Little Tyranny in the Caribbean”: The March of Time and a 1936 United States–Dominican Diplomatic Crisis

The July 10, 1936, episode of The March of Time included a sequence criticizing Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, which caused a diplomatic crisis between the United States and the Dominican Republic. This essay contends that the events following the release of this sequence demonstrate how cinema could both aid as well as pose a challenge to the Good Neighbor policy. Additionally, the article argues that this diplomatic incident and the marked difference in the reception of the episode in the United States and the Dominican Republic makes evident the importance of audiences in (re)crafting a film’s message and determining its local political significance.