Hollyword v. Goebbels

Hollywood v. Goebbels

Hollywood heard some winged words last fortnight. They came from a learned don at Cambridge University, Denis W. Brogan, able historian (of the U.S. and French republics) and professor of political science. Wrote he in the New York Times:

"The movies are innocently the most revolutionary instrument that has come from America since the Declaration of Independence. . . . The United States is now associated all over Europe (and above all in Britain) with a series of visual images that the European peoples find attractive. America is a background to the movies.

"It is not only a question of stars. It is the minor actors too. Taken together, they give a picture of American life that is varied, sometimes silly, sometimes worse than silly, but that is less silly than people pretend and is very seldom as silly or as dull or as misleading as Petain. . . .

"Even the most naive European spectator of an American film . . . knows when Hollywood is giving him a conducted tour to Cloud-Cuckoo-Land. But he compares his native Cloud-Cuckoo-Land with the American version, usually to the advantage of the American version. . . .

"It is the kitchens, the cheap cars, the drugstores, the tourist camps, of which Hollywood gives frequent glimpses, that excite the envy or emulation that promotes discontent. Hitler was wise to discourage American films in Germany, films showing a life in a country where a people's car is a reality, not a confidence trick. . . ."

Hollywood, which had not planned it just that way, took a bow after Historian Brogan's statement. Hollywood might also have reflected that, if distorted images had so moved Europeans, what might a truer reflection of American life have done?

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