Word: hollywoodized
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Died. Lord Rank, 83, Britain's foremost moviemaker; in Winchester, England. A devout Methodist with a family fortune derived from flour mills, J. (for Joseph) Arthur Rank entered the film business in the '30s to produce pictures that would compete with Hollywood and be morally uplifting. "I believe the best way we can spread the gospel of Christ," he said, "is through films." He made such classics as Great Expectations, Hamlet and In Which We Serve, and increased his fortune to an estimated $250 million...
...affaire Chaplin was one of the great silver screen scandals. It helped bolster the movies' infamous Morals Clause. This bit of fine print allowed a studio to fire an employee who caused embarrassment by his private behavior. Hollywood, an arena never deficient in irony, intended the clause to be used in case of sexual indiscretions. Its eventual use was political. In the '40s and '50s, film company lawyers employed it to separate "subversives" from the payroll. One suspect they could not touch was the independently wealthy Chaplin. It was not for want of trying...
...resentments were deferred, not dismissed. In the palmy days of Hollywood, a story made the rounds. Actor: "How should I play this scene, Mr. Chaplin?" Reply: "Behind me and to the left." It was more than a critique of the star's egomania; it was also a comment on his politics. From the start, Chaplin was a fan of sentimental collectivism, of revolution seen through a scrim. He needed no Bolshevik primer on poverty. Charlie had risen from the darkest of London slums. His father was a drunk; his mother sewed blouses for 1½ pence...
...When the Hollywood Ten were exorcised from the film industry, Chaplin offered his voice to the choir of protest. Two years later, one of the ten, Alvah Bessie, called on Chaplin begging for a writing assignment. How about a movie on Don Quixote, Bessie spitballed, with you as Sancho Panza and Walter Huston as Don? "They'd crucify me," Chaplin told him crisply and offered a farewell handshake. When Bessie morosely withdrew, he found a folded hundred-dollar bill in his palm...
Having done the American Indian plenty of dirt over the years, using him either as stock villain or fall guy, Hollywood is trying to set matters right. If Journey Through Rosebud is any indication the Indians were better off being portrayed as blood-crazed savages. At least that left them some dignity...