Bringing the series to the 1940s, the Monday, Nov. 29, “Warriors and Peacemakers” (1941-1950) episode (part five) of TCM’s Moguls and Movie Stars falters. Giving more screen time to Mickey Rooney than to Howard Hawks, John Wayne or Gary Cooper, who made Meet John Doe, Sergeant York, and Ball of Fire in 1941 alone, the episode loses perspective. When it comes to presenting the facts of Communists in Hollywood, the series goes pink if not entirely red.
It does contain a few insights, briefly covering legendary director John Ford’s ability to create a movie on time and under budget, assuring his creative independence, and demonstrating that Joseph P. Kennedy (the assassinated president’s father) was a Nazi appeaser who tried to force the moguls to remove Jewish names from picture credits to placate those who were exterminating Jews by the millions. Narrator Christopher Plummer (Malcolm X, The Sound of Music), who famously portrayed a refugee from National Socialism, reminds us that government intervention harmed the studio system with a Supreme Court decision against Paramount for having an alleged “monopoly” while President Franklin Roosevelt considered targeting Hollywood’s moguls for making too much money.
Then it’s back to the rose-colored lens, with pro-Communist speakers, such as the vacuous Gore Vidal, actress Marsha Hunt, and the obnoxious son of writer Dalton Trumbo. Communist Trumbo is practically lionized here while TCM discards any mention of the most oppressive regime in history, the Soviet Union, which is proven to have infiltrated Hollywood. TCM blatantly evades Soviet sponsorship of American movies and the treatment of Communism in Hollywood is dishonest.
What may be the greatest movie ever made, Casablanca, is practically regarded as an accident. Instead, we get more proselytizing about Big Labor, Soviet apologist Lillian Hellman and the anti-business picture The Best Years of Our Lives, while Walt Disney, an anti-Communist, Jimmy Stewart (It’s a Wonderful Life), a veteran, and more deserving stars than Marsha Hunt and Mickey Rooney, such as Barbara Stanwyck, John Wayne, and Gary Cooper, are practically blacklisted. As those appeasing Soviet Russia are treated as martyrs, movie stars such as Cary Grant, described as an insecure actor, barely merit a few lines.
The disgustingly Communist-slanted “Warriors and Peacemakers” impairs the series’ credibility, which is unfortunate, since the first four episodes capably present a captivating history of the business of making movies. “Warriors and Peacemakers” will be featured with Casablanca (1942), Charlie Chaplin’s send-up of Hitler, The Great Dictator (1940) and director John Ford’s They Were Expendable (1945). The Wednesday, Dec. 1 repeat will be joined by Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) starring John Wayne, Citizen Kane (1941) and Joan Crawford’s melodramatic ode to human suffering, Mildred Pierce (1945).