Charlie Chaplin vs. America

May 1, 2023

Charlie Chaplin made some of film's masterpieces but fell foul of U.S. politics during the Red-Scared post-World War II era owing to his liberal, internationalist views and his having never become a U.S. citizen. His sexual interest in young women was further used as a covert means of condemning his politics. Refused entry into the United States after a trip abroad, he lived his last years in Switzerland. Hollywood biography Eyman (Pieces of My Heart) details his ordeal. Prepub Alert.

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Starred review from August 28, 2023
Biographer Eyman (20th Century Fox) presents a riveting account of the events that led the U.S. government in 1952 to banish Charlie Chaplin, a Brit by birth who had lived in America for decades after first arriving as a teenager. According to Eyman, Chaplin earned detractors in his adopted country as his films became more overtly political, with some complaining that his 1940 anti-Nazi satire The Great Dictator was intended to undermine American neutrality in WWII. After Chaplin gave a series of speeches in 1942 advocating for the opening of a second European front to support Russia, the FBI “sailed into the Chaplin business full-time,” investigating him for alleged communist sympathies and amassing a 1,900-page file on him. The Bureau leaked dubious information about Chaplin’s sex life to his critics in the press, most notably gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who used the occasion of an “ugly, trumped-up paternity suit” to drive public opinion against the filmmaker. He fell into such disfavor that when he was denied reentry to the U.S. after leaving for the London premier of his film Limelight, he didn’t bother fighting the decision. Eyman gives the history a sense of urgency by highlighting the danger that government interference poses to artistic speech, and his account of how “Chaplin’s forced exile destroyed him as an artist” is affecting. Readers will be rapt.

Starred review from July 15, 2023
A history of the ideological, cultural, and personal campaign against the motion picture industry's most independent and incandescent light of the 20th century. Eyman, author of biographies of Cary Grant, John Wayne, John Ford, and other major names in film history, presents a beautifully composed and unique look at how Chaplin was characterized as an immoral sexual deviant and Soviet-sympathizing subversive. The author vividly documents the federal government's relentless pursuit of Chaplin, particularly the notorious House Un-American Affairs Committee and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, whose file on Chaplin grew to 1,900 pages, many of which were leaked to the artist's most mendacious and vociferous antagonists in the press. Eyman also showcases his keen knowledge of filmmaking by dissecting and analyzing Chaplin's work, particularly focusing on specific elements of his most socially significant productions: the darker, farcical aspects of capitalism in Modern Times; the anti-Nazi sendup of Hitler in The Great Dictator, which found him besieged by the then-isolationist U.S. government, the British government, and the Nazis themselves; and the audience-disappointing Monsieur Verdoux, the idea for which Chaplin purchased from Orson Welles. Eyman's insightful, articulate approach illuminates the fruits of his lifelong research, whether he is discussing Chaplin's grilling during a paternity suit in which he was wrongfully convicted (which gave aid and comfort to his enemies); his hands-on directing and the graceful athleticism of his acting; or the consistency of his somewhat na�ve political views amid the tectonic shifts in American political sentiment following World War II. While Eyman clearly admires Chaplin, he does not descend into idolatry. The author starkly portrays Chaplin's personal shortcomings and idiosyncrasies as well as his winning, losing, and recapturing of his audience. Eyman also shows his happiness and domestic tranquility in his marriage to Oona O'Neill, whom he wed when he was 54 and she 18, a situation that established another launching pad for public outrage. A brilliant must-read about the epic and turbulent life and times of a cinematic titan.

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Starred review from October 1, 2023

Eyman's (Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise) meticulous biography recounts the FBI's smear campaign against Charlie Chaplin, one of cinema's most beloved actors. Chaplin rose to worldwide fame in the silent era with his onscreen characterization of the Tramp, beloved by millions. In the 1940s, his image took a dramatic turn after he was sued in a paternity case by actress Joan Barry, was accused of being a communist, and married 18-year-old Oona O'Neill when he was 54. After years of investigations failed to unveil evidence regarding Chaplin's political leanings, the FBI focused on his sex life. Chaplin lost the paternity suit despite a blood test indicating that he was not the father. When Chaplin traveled to England in 1952, he found that his U.S. visa had been canceled. He did not fight the charge and lived the remainder of his life in Switzerland with O'Neill and their eight children. He returned to the United States only briefly in 1972 to receive an honorary Oscar. VERDICT Distinguished research, featuring the over 1,900-page FBI report, media accounts, and interviews with family members, coworkers, and historians, propels this excellent biography that captures Chaplin, both the person and his work.--Phillip Oliver

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October 15, 2023
Eyman (Hank & Jim, 2017; Cary Grant, 2020) brings his fine writing and rigorous research to the later years of Charlie Chaplin's remarkable career--the post-WWII years he spent living in exile from the United States and under the shadow of accusations of sexual impropriety and political disloyalty. (Chaplin had never become a citizen, which, along with his leftist leanings, was used against him during the Red Scare.) It's a heartrending story of a brilliant comedian and filmmaker battling prejudice, depression, and a looming feeling of failure. It's also a story of resilience; instead of buckling under the pressure and fading into obscurity, Chaplin--who settled in Switzerland after he was denied reentry to the U.S. following a 1952 trip abroad--made two more movies, both in London. (These were 1957's A King in New York and, a decade later, A Countess from Hong Kong.) Eyman approaches his subject with compassion, digging to explore the ordinary person beneath the veneer of celebrity. An essential addition to every film history collection.

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