Hearings regarding the communist infiltration of the motion picture industry. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first session. Public law 601 (section 121, subsection Q (1947)

COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY 35 Mr. Thomas. Can't you be more specific. You say a feeling existed. Mr. Warner. Yes. Mr. Thomas. We want to Ivuow more about the specific tiling, something more than just a general feeling. We want to know the persons in the Government who got in touch with you concerning the making of this film. Mr. Warner. Well, I don't think Mr. Davies was in the Government then. He was then ex-Ambassador to Russia and almost everything was dealt tlirough him. Mr. Thomas. Did anyone in the State Department get in touch with you or not? Mr. Warner. No. I don't know. Not to my knowledge. No one here or in New York. Mr. Thomas. Did anyone in the White House get in touch with you? Mr. Warner. No, not directly in touch ; no, sir. Mr. Thomas. Not directly in touch? Mr. WABNEm. Do you mean did anyone in the White House say we should make the film for reasons along those lines? Mr. Thomas. Directly or indirectly? Mr. WiUiNER. Well, as I understood at the time through Mr. Davies that he had contacted the White House and for all of the reasons I recited it was good for the defense and for the prosecution of the war to' keep the Russians in there figliting until the proper time when the United States and Britain could organize, in other words, give us time to pi'epare. Mr. Thomas. Let's have the date you started producing that film. Mr. Warner. We started November 9, 1942. Mr. Thomas. And you completed production when? Mr. Warner. On February 2, 1943. It took a little under 4 months. Mr. Stripijng. That is rather a quick production, isn't it? Mr. Warneoi. No ; that was about the usual length of time. They are usually 8 or 10 weeks. Mr. Stripling. From a commercial standpoint the film was not very successful, was it? Mr. Warner. No ; it was not exceptionally successful. It was not successful to any great degree. It did very good at first. Mr. Stripling. I mean from what I lieard. In fact, there has been testimony it was not very successful. IMr. Warner. No ; I would not call it very successful. Commercially it wasn't exceedingly successful ; no, sir. Mr. Stripling. Mr. Warner, there is one question which I think the subcommittee would like to have cleared up and I think that you as a studio executive, could probably give them some information about it. That testimony, Mr. Chairman, does not deal with Mission to Moscow. I would like to skip over to the next page, which picks it up again [reading] : Mr. Stripling. If you had not been approached by Mr. Davies or by anyone in the Government indirectly it would have been very likely that you would not have filmed Mission to Moscow? Mr. Warner. No ; we would not. Mr. Stripling. I think the writers are the most important people in this investigation. I believe you mentioned Koch. Mr. Warner. Howard Koch. Mr. Warxer. Pardon me, yon missed some very important information here. ISIr. Stripling. I am sorry. Mr. Warxer. You said the next page, and you skipped a page. Mr. Stripling. I am .sorry, Mr. Warner, I clid. Mr. Warner. If you will go back to page 28 you will find it refers — oh, yes; at the bottom of page 27 [reading] : Mr. Wariter. — this is myself speaking — I was going to say something about that after I recited some of the chronological events of the war in order to confirm my feeling for the reasons that the Gov