The Hoaxters

Hoaxters, The (1952)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

MGM short is pure propaganda, which ranks right down there with Triumph of the Will and various other films. The film tries to show claims that Communist and anyone wanting to make money are no different than Nazis. This film runs just over 30-minutes and I'm sure at the time it had its heart in the right place but it's very dated today and some of the films claims are just downright silly. Howard Keel, George Murphy, Walter Pidgeon, Barry Sullivan, Robert Taylor and James Whitmore narrate various parts of the film. Technically speaking the film is very well made but that doesn't add to the entertainment value.

To really appreciate the amusement value of this pseudo-documentary (and the truly scary nature of this sort of propaganda) it is necessary to understand the political situation of Europe and North America during the middle years of the 20th century. While isolationism (America First Committee) was generally favored by much of the population; both Europe and America had seen a growth of antiliberalism (a mix of fascism and interventionist sentiment). This surge in antiliberalism was part of a gradual evolution over the preceding six decades.

It expressed violent opposition to liberalism and social democracy; but reserved its most vitriolic rants for Marxism (later communism and Bolshevism-Hitler termed it Judeo-Bolshevism). In Germany before the war and in America after the war, it included an extreme brand of nationalism. "The Hoaxters" even spends a moment at the grave site of Karl Marx; branding him the greatest evil of the world.

The irony of "The Hoaxters" (and the quality Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels would have found most amusing) is its basic premise of equating Nazi antiliberalism (an ideology much closer to that of this film's makers and backers) with the perceived ideology of America's enemy-of-the-decade; the Soviet Union.

Indeed Hitler nicely summed up his core belief and social Darwinist attitude as: "In this struggle the stronger, the more able, win, while the less able, the weak, lose. Struggle is the father of all things ... It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle". Which is much closer to free market capitalism than to Marxism's: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need".

Flush from their triumphs over Germany and Japan; both America and the Soviets were in need of a credible enemy. They served each other well in this capacity; with fear routinely employed by both countries to prevent a return to isolationism.

But the documentary does not limit itself to traditional saber rattling. It evokes the snake oil salesman analogy to discredit and dismiss any new fangled notions of government. It even anticipates that the socio-economic situation of blue-collar workers, women, and minorities back in 1952 might make them less receptive to simplistic arguments about freedom and democracy. Jackie Robinson and Walter Reuther appear briefly to proclaim that their respective races and classes are solidly behind America (something to the effect that they would rather be discriminated and exploited here; than have to live in the Soviet Union).

The documentary is professionally made and narrated.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

In the 1950s, the word "communist" was essentially used to describe anything americans didn't like. The USSR's previously friendly attitude towards the United States was gone by this point, although you could argue they never liked us to begin with. In this half hour film from the 50s, we learn how Soviet Russia was really not much different from Germany under Hitler, and was even worse than him in many respects. The early part of the film shows a snake oil salesman, meant to represent people like Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. The salesman claims what he's selling is like magic and will make all your problems go away, strikingly similar to what dictators in the 30s and 40s were telling their citizens in regards to their policies. The film argues that despite Hitler saying Communism was his regime's ultimate nemesis, there's very little difference between the two ideologies. Nazis believe that everyone should work together for the betterment of the whole country (just like communists), and both parties had offshoot organizations in the USA, such as the German American Bund. These people were living in America under its protection but were still preaching about how Hitler will make things right. It's also worth pointing out that many people in Hollywood in the 30s were actual communists, as they wanted to take a stance against Hitler. Both communists and nazis were treated with equal disdain by the FBI, who shut down many of their meetings and arrested their members. The film then goes on to draw comparisons between Nazi Germany and the USSR, saying how both countries banned free speech and people voting in elections had their choice of only one person: Hitler or Stalin respectively. The most interesting part of the film comes when the narrator says the Soviet Union changed its attitude towards America 7 whole times in the 30s and 40s. He says they hated America at first because they viewed us as dirty capitalists, but then changed their attitude when they noticed Germany becoming more and more powerful. Later, Stalin changes his mind again and accepts a peace deal with the Nazis, hoping to bide his time long enough until his country can achieve military parity with Germany. Once Hitler invades the USSR, they have no choice but to once again change their thoughts on America, as they desperately need vehicles and weapons. Finally, after the war is over, the Soviets decide to be hostile to the US since they see them as an adversary with a different, non-socialist mindset. Russia is once again America's enemy, but during ww2, we put our differences aside to defeat the common threat of national socialism. I thought this film was interesting, but it didn't tell me much I didn't know already. Anyone with a brain in their head should be aware of the fact that Stalin was more evil than Hitler, but for whatever reason he is still widely venerated in Russia, alongside other human garbage like Trotsky and Lenin. Even the biggest mass murderer in history Mao Zedong, whose industrial and agricultural policies killed around 70 million Chinese, is held in high esteem today. Every single chinese bank note has his face on it. It's a good example of the winners writing history, since if Stalin lost world war 2 (or if Mao lost china's civil war), they would probably be just as hated as Hitler is now. The USSR was also a horrible place to live for much of its existence, and only started to improve towards the very end of its life in the mid 1980s. Even then, saying anything bad about the government was liable to get you in prison. Overall, this short brings up some good points about how the Soviet Union used many of the same tactics the nazis did, such as crushing free speech, getting rid of political adversaries, and silently disposing of troublemakers via a secret police force. It goes to show that most dictators are all the same, despite their differing beliefs.

This might have worked a bit better if they'd engaged a commentator capable of putting his tongue in his cheek a little. They didn't, so as it is, it is a too earnest and simplistic appraisal of those it dubs the "hoaxters". Those are the people like Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin and Stalin who promised their populations a much improved lifestyle of opportunity and prosperity - only for those dreams to end in wartime ruin. Meantime, we see an United States basking in the sunlight of it's open democracy and freedom, powerfully and emphatically, and warning of the dangers to this Elysian existence should the fickle and untrustworthy communists ever make any inroads into society on their side of the Atlantic. That's all the usual flag-waving fayre, so it's not especially surprising. What is makes no effort to do, though, is to contextualise just what led to the rise of fascism and totalitarianism in Europe. Given the devastation following the Great War and the political upheavals, unemployment, homelessness and poverty that ensued, surely it was worth trying to explain that when people are desperate, the powers of oratory when coupled with appeals to pride and jingoism are particularly effective amongst many a population at least as well educated as anyone in the US. Obviously intended for internal consumption, it probably had a job to do - but as anything like a dispassionate analysis of just how fanaticism turns into electoral success it falls short taking aim at some easy historically loathed targets and leaves us little better informed that we would be if we had read some opposition newspaper headlines at the time.

I first had the privilege of watching The Hoaxters in 1974. My roommate in college actually had a 16mm print of this one reeler and I was captivated by it's effectiveness in propaganda. This is an interesting historical relic that is reflective of the era that it came out of. This film was produced during the height of the McCarthy "Red Scare" years and was a fitting example of Hollywood's fear of the House on Unamerican Committee "witch hunts". 1952 was a completely different world in contrast to how we live in this country today. People were more reverent then; their moral scruples were more intact and we must remember that we just emerged victorious from the Second World War and were then fighting the Korean War, so nationalism was more prevalent; respect for the flag and country was almost an anticipated action; no flag burning then! There is so much to comment on the mentality of the early 1950's.

If we were to become suddenly sucked into some time vortex and transported back to this era, we would probably go mad because of stricter standards demanded of us not only by government, be it local, State or Federal, but by our respective religious beliefs as well as the people around us who would demand that we conform to their thinking. Morals were stronger, religion had a firmer, influential hold and most people respected the authorities. This film demonstrates this and more. It also demonstrated fear; the fear of Communism was real; people felt that World War III would break out at any moment; the fear was valid; the fear was reflective in our leaders as well as the common man. And it was in this fear-driven time that Joseph McCarthy made a name for himself by using this fear to ruin many innocent lives.

MGM did a marvelous job producing this film. The voices of Walter Pidgeon and George Murphy are easily recognized; the animation is quite entertaining, especially when it showed the Swastika turning into a map of Germany or the dragon changing into the Japanese islands. Remember, these images were stronger in the minds of those who saw this film in 1952, because it was just seven years after these totalitarian regimes were defeated. Korea further exacerbated these feelings; it was the duty of every God-fearing American to struggle against those who wanted to enslave the free world.

The Hoaxters didn't just reflect the mentality of the times, but it also permitted those in Hollywood to pledge their allegiance (to a lesser degree compared to World War II) against a foe. This was partly due to nationalism, but mainly due to the fear of blacklisting by the HUAC. All in all, a great historical chestnut.