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COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY 93
Tlie Chairman. May I interrupt just a minute. I want the record to show that Mr. AVood is here. We now have a quorum of the full connnittee.
Mr. Stripling. Mr. Menjou, do you have any particular pictures in mind
Mr. Menjou. Well
Mr. SxRirLiNG. When j^ou make that statement?
Mr. Menjou. AA'ell, 1 wonder if I could preface it by a short statement ?
Mr. Stripling. Yes, if you please.
Mr. Menjou. I am not here to smear. I am here to defend the industry, that I have spent the greater part of my life in. I am here to defend the producers and the motion-picture industry.
Now, you wanted me to name a picture ?
The Chairman. May I interrupt before you name a picture?
Mr. Menjou. I am sorry.
The Chairman. I want to say that the committee is, also, not here to smear the industry or to smear people working in the industry. Tlie committee wants to get the facts, and only the facts. We are going toliear both sides of all of these questions. We want to make it very clear that the committee is not out to censor the screen.
Proceed, Mr. Menjou.
Mr. Menjou. Will you repeat the question, please?
Mr. Stripling. Yes. Well, we will approach it this way. We have had testimony here to the effect that writers who were members of the Screen Writers Guild have attempted to inject un-American propaganda into motion pictures. Are you aware that that is the case, or has been the case, in Hollj'wood at any time?
]\Ir. Menjou. I don't think that I am competent to answer that question. I am a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and I think a member of the Screen Writers Guild would be far more competent to answer that. If you want to ask me if I know of any un-American propaganda in any pictures that I appeared, I wall be glad to give you my thoughts.
Mr. Stripling. Will j^ou give an example?
Mr. Menjou. I don't think the picture Mission to Moscow should have been made. It was a perfectly completely dishonest picture. If it was to have been an adaptation, of the book by Mr. Davies it should have included the entire story in Moscow, including the Moscow trials where Mr. Davies was a witness and over wdiich Mr. Vishinsky presided. That was not in the picture. Therefore, I consider that a completely dishonest picture and distortion of the adaptation of the book.
I also do not think that the jjicture North Star was a true picture, from what I have been able to learn after reading over 150 books on the subject. This was a picture showing the German attack on the Russians and certain parts of it were not true. It has been quite some time ago since I saw the picture. I thought that picture would have been better unmade. Fortunately, those pictures were unsuccessful.
Mr. Stripling. As a generality, would you say that the more entertaining the picture is, the better opportunit}'^ there might be to put across propaganda ?
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