Celluloid Soldiers: The Warner Bros. Campaign Against Nazism

Introduction

Introduction During the 1930s many Americans avoided thinking about war erupting in Europe, believing that it was of little significance to their interests. Besides, America was suffering from its own myriad problems: the Great Depression, social displacement, political unrest, and burgeoning crime. Bitter memories of World War I and the failure of the Versailles Treaty prompted people from all walks of life to embrace isolationism and denounce any U.S. involvement abroad. Challenging the conventional wisdom of the day, Warner Bros. studio embarked on a crusade to alert Americans about the growing menace of Nazism, arguing that the United States could not turn a blind eye to events in Europe and that the Republic was indeed in danger. Polish-Jewish immigrants Harry and Jack Warner risked both their reputations and their fortunes to inform the American public about the insidious threat Hitler’s regime posed throughout the world. From the mid-1930s to the early 1940s before Pearl Harbor, the studio produced a number of antifascist films, including Black Legion, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, The Adventures of Robin Hood, They Won’t Forget, Juarez, Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet , The Life of Emile Zola, and Sergeant York. As a result Warner Bros. drew fire from many directions: the Nazi regime in Germany, Benito Mussolini and his Italian fascists, film critics at home and abroad, the Production Code Administration (PCA), the German-American Bund, anti-Semites, isolationists, U.S. political leaders, the Roosevelt administration , and even other members of the Hollywood film industry. The story of Warner Bros.’s dogged pursuit is worthy of closer scrutiny, not only because it is a compelling story, but also because it so vividly reveals a state of mind in the United States before World War II. A few Poverty Row studios, such as Raspin and Jewel, along with independent producer Walter Wanger, attempted to make features about the growing threat of Nazism. Every major magazine, whether interventionist or isolationist , regularly informed its readership about events unfolding in 1 Germany. But the Warner brothers stood virtually alone among the Hollywood moguls in speaking out. Their studio exhibited the most consistent assault on Hitler’s Germany and fascism in general to come out of Hollywood before 1942. In spite of the Warners’ diligence, interventionists in Hollywood, the American heartland clung to the belief that the growing crisis in Europe was not its affair. World War I hero Sgt. Alvin C. York had opposed the draft in 1917 but was denied conscientious objector status. The U.S. Army refused to recognize his denomination, the Church of Christ in Christian Union, as a legitimate Christian sect, and the Tennessean reluctantly went to war—to become America’s most famous hero. Upon his return, York resumed his pacifist stance, often speaking out against the past war and condemning any future conflagrations. As tensions mounted in Europe, independent producer Jesse Lasky, who was then working at 20th Century–Fox, approached York in the fall of 1939 about making a film based on his life. York, when he reluctantly signed a contract in March of 1940, demanded that the film emphasize his struggles since the war, not his battlefield heroics. But in the course of his association with Lasky, the studio, and Harry Warner in particular, he slowly altered his views and the pacifist turned interventionist. Typical of the average citizen, York had to be convinced that the events in Europe mattered to Americans, and his conversion to belligerency mirrored the subtle changes in the mood of the American public. Through a score of films produced during the 1930s and early 1940s, the Warner Bros. studio marshaled its forces to mobilize a nation divided over the intervention issue and, along with Alvin York, made one of the definitive statements about the dangers that Nazism and fascism posed for the world. The purpose of this study is threefold. First, much attention has been focused upon how Hollywood aided the government once war was declared , but little work has been done on prewar calls for intervention. Because Warner Bros. was the only major studio to promote anti-Nazi activity , it begs further scrutiny. A great deal has been written about Warner Bros., but little of it has been very illuminating. The memoirs of movie people who worked there are often woefully inaccurate and anecdotal. They display the vagaries of selective memory and should be read with skepticism. The memoirs of Jack Warner, Jesse Lasky, Mervyn LeRoy, Hal Wallis, Errol Flynn, Howard Koch...