When Charlie Chaplin was cancelled

IN TODAY’S CULTURE wars, Hollywood has a starring role. Films tend to trigger debates about America’s history and values. That has long been the case, as a new book, “Charlie Chaplin vs America”, shows. Chaplin, a British citizen, was harassed by the American government, culminating in the revocation of a re-entry permit in 1952. It is a sobering account of cancel culture in action. Indeed, it makes some of the current spats seem toothless by comparison.

“I don’t want to create revolution,” Chaplin said. “I just want to create a few more pictures.” But the FBI, suspecting Chaplin of communist sympathies, started surveilling the film-maker in 1922. In a paranoid climate, many looked for evidence of Marxism. Those convinced Chaplin was “red” pointed to his screen persona, the Tramp, an embodiment of the beleaguered everyman. They perceived it, too, in “Modern Times” (1936), a dramatisation of workers’ plight due to unemployment and automation, and in “The Great Dictator” (1940), which called out America’s isolationism.