Charlie Chaplin was outspoken about his progressive political views throughout his career, and by the 1930s, many of these views were making their way into his film work. Modern Times was his first overtly political film during this period, and it grew out of a frustration with the state of labor in the US, and a concern that the country would not recover fully from the Great Depression if mechanization continued to raise unemployment. Many of the ideas presented in the film were gathered during a world tour that Chaplin took after completing City Lights, during which he saw the effects of the Great Depression around the world, and the film portrays the problems that he believed to have caused and exacerbated the economic troubles.
The film received mostly positive reviews and fared well abroad, but had relatively low box-office earnings in the US because of the controversial message. His popularity began to suffer after the film was released, and Chaplin started receiving much more criticism from right-wing and anti-communist groups and politicians. These problems grew when he made The Great Dictator in 1940, which satirized Hitler and the Nazi takeover of Germany. Most notably, Chaplin broke from character at the end of the film and delivered a five-minute speech, urging audiences to resist fascism. Reception of the film was mixed, because this overt political preaching in a film was controversial with audiences. It also tied him closely to politics in his artistic life, which was considered dangerous by some in the government and brought FBI attention to him.
He had already been mentioned in FBI files as early as 1922 for his political leanings, but the politics of Modern Times and The Great Dictator led to more direct FBI activity aimed at discrediting him, out of fear that he could use his popularity to sway audiences toward communist ideas. Communist paranoia was on the rise in the US, and communists were seen by many in the government as threats to democracy. Throughout much of the 1940s, the FBI used Chaplin’s paternity scandal with Joan Berry to generate negative publicity about him and turn the public against him. They brought four charges against him related to the Joan Berry case, three of which were thrown out and one of which Chaplin was acquitted of quickly. By the end of the scandal, Chaplin’s public image was severely damaged.
Additionally, during WWII, Chaplin became more politically active and campaigned for better Soviet-American relationships and for the US to open a second front to help the Soviet Union fight the Nazis. He was friends with several suspected communists, and attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in California, which magnified suspicions about his communist ties. When his next film, Monsieur Verdoux, came out in 1947 and criticized capitalism and war, he was booed out of the premiere and the film was a critical and commercial failure. Some politicians and anti-communist groups called for a boycott of the film, and right-wing politicians called for his deportation. Though he denied being a communist, instead saying that he was a “peacemonger,” the FBI launched an official investigation into his political leanings in 1947. At one point, the FBI even requested (and received) help from MI5 to investigate claims that he was not born in London but in France or Eastern Europe, and that his real name was Israel Thornstein. Though MI5 found no evidence of communist ties, the FBI did not drop the investigation.
Over the next several years, he openly protested against the actions of the House Un-American Activities Committee, arguing that it was an infringement of civil liberties. He protested the trials of Communist Party members, and received a subpoena to appear before the HUAC himself but was never called to testify. His reputation continued to suffer, and in 1952 he produced Limelight, a personal film about a vaudeville comedian forced to cope with his loss of popularity. When he left for the premiere in London, the US attorney general revoked his re-entry permit, stating that he would have to be subject to an interview concerning his political views and moral behavior before being granted re-entry.
Chaplin, fed up with what he called a “hate-beleaguered atmosphere” in the US, did not attempt to return. He sent his wife, Oona O’Neill, to settle his affairs in the US, moved to Switzerland, and started his own production company. He produced the film A King in New York in 1957, which directly parodied the HUAC and communist paranoia in the US, and was considered his most personally bitter film. In 1972, many years after communist paranoia had died down, Chaplin was given an honorary award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which some saw as a sign that the US wanted to make amends. Chaplin returned to the US for the first time in 20 years to receive the award, and was given a 12-minute standing ovation, which remains the longest one in the Academy’s history.
