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5IO MOTION PICTURES I922-I945
As to the position of American producers and distributors, I told him that the recent Italian decree was confiscatory and that we should have to move out of Italy unless some compromise were reached. We should have to close our exchanges and abandon all business. On the other hand, I assured him that we were as much interested in international amity as he was; that we stood ready to do anything possible; that in my opinion Rome was the "cradle of all art," and that under his guidance there was no question about the success of the Italian motion picture industry. Since it would soon be branching out from Rome all over the world, I knew that he was as much interested as I in maintaining a free flow of pictures across international boundaries. I told him that I had gone out to see the Cinematographic Institute establishment, with all its fine equipment— practically in Mussolini's back yard— and I explained to him how our industry had helped to finance it.
By now our conversation had become a joint exchange, and at this point II Duce suddenly asked, "What do you wantr3" It was as direct as that. I answered as directly: "We want to bring into Italy all the American motion pictures that the traffic will stand, and we want to take out enough money to enable us to live."
Mussolini said at once, "That seems fair," and picked up his telephone. Though I did not know it at the time, he was talking to Ciano— in Italian, of course. In a moment he turned to me. "All right," he said, 'we'll give you twenty million lire." (That was a rise from the edict's eight million.) "You can bring in all the American pictures you want and there will be no fraud in the exchange."
I replied, "All right, we'll do that, and the American motion picture will not move out of Italv." Perhaps I had no actual authority to make that definite agreement on behalf of the producers and distributors, but his offer was probably a better one than they had expected, and I was sure they would want it accepted.
Throughout the entire conference Alfieri had sat there not saying a word, but I think he understood English well enough to get the drift. And now, since somewhere in the conversation it had been mentioned that II Duce was planning to make a trip to Tripoli within a few days and that his famous white horse was to be there as a part of the trappings of some ceremonial occasion, I said, "Further, Your Excellency, the American newsreels will be at Tripoli." He acknowledged this courtesy with obvious pride. And our serious business having been concluded in an atmosphere of cordial understanding, we went on to talk about other things, chiefly of the future. Early in our talk I had become convinced that Mussolini was not interested in Fascism as an export product, as we Americans were in pictures. This feeling colored my later discussions with him. I know he didn't want Communists active in Barcelona because the Mediterranean made contact so easy, but he wasn't trying to