title poem
Hi,one can never be too rich or have too many friends. What is the title poem they use for this film that somehow became commie propoganda?
The poem by that "commie" Robert Louis Stevenson was entitled, "My Wife". The part that was quoted in the film was used as an epitaph to Stevenson's wife.
I just saw the film tonight and am hard pressed to see any evidence of communist propaganda. I've heard that the reasons given were that the wives shared a house and one of them says, "Share and share alike" and/or "all for one and one for all". I guess it was the paranoia of the 1950s that cited this WWII melodrama. If anything, it was a plug for "truth, justice and the American way".
While the word "comrade" gained a different meaning with Communism, I agree this movie is very rah rah American, let's go fight the baddies, let's all sacrifice for the cause, and let's not allow anyone to be a slacker--not a bit unusual for wartime. You can see that in many movies of the era. The evolution of ordinary, selfish citizens into proud workers for the war is a common plot that was meant to shame those in the audience who weren't doing their share and make it seem as if everyone who was good and virtuous and decent was supporting the violent overthrow of the enemy. It's hardly a nuanced view! lol
But it did show that there were a lot of Americans who weren't that gung ho and needed to be convinced. Some never were convinced that the govt line was the only line. Some ended up in jail; some were harassed and attacked. And some were just butterflies who couldn't be bothered to take an interest in world affairs. Then as now, the country had all kinds. It took a huge propaganda push and a lot of social pressure to get that many to cooperate for the relatively short time the US was in the war. This movie was totally normal for that era in being used for that purpose. I don't see it as being any different than, for instance, Since You Went Away.
I've never seen a wartime movie that promoted the idea that communal life and sacrifice was going to go on forever and should be the norm. It's all about pitching in and doing without during the present emergency, which is something Americans knew about from the Depression and was something they dropped the first minute they could after the war. lol
Remember the tremendous production of single family homes, all outfitted with their own appliances, with a car or two in the garage, and probably a fence around the backyard or at least a hedge to mark one's territory. People had had ENOUGH of crowded conditions and sharing. They wanted a little island. When they had the opportunity, they were not by inclination any more unselfish or sacrificial than today. That might suggest that Communism could only be imposed on the postwar American culture of individualism by a police state and that the fears of that era were largely hysteria. Of course in the Depression a lot of people were desperate and as we know, there is the feeling that desperate times require desperate measures. But as soon as the economy picked up with the war, that faded away and people embraced capitalism agsin. Well, hey, making money is fun. :)