Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgment My great thanks to Akira Iriye, Ernest May, Joseph Nye for their years of extraordinary mentoring, reflected, albeit imperfectly, in this piece and everything I write; to my friend Paul G. Nagle of the William Morris Agency, who has provided me with an incomparable education in the real-world workings of the entertainment industry, and with whom I am coauthoring a biography of producer Samuel Bronston; to Jonathan Rosenberg of Hunter College, Dr. John Trumpbour, and the members of the writers' group organized by Jonathan Soffer of Polytechnic University, all of whom generously offered invaluable editorial suggestions that enhanced this article in numerous ways; to the many interview subjects cited within this piece, who took time to respond to my queries; to Professor Nicholas Cull of USC's Annenberg School for Communications; to Thomas Schatz of the University of Texas and Frank Ninkovich of St. John's University for their general encouragement of my work; and to the staffs of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, the US National Archives in College Park, Maryland, the Spanish General Archive of the Civil Administration of the State in Alcala de Henares, and the archive of the Spanish Ministry of Culture in Madrid for their aid and attention throughout my research. Notes Notes 1. See for example Fernando Termis Soto, Renunciando a todo: El Régimen franquista y los Estados Unidos desde 1945 hasta 1963 (Madrid, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Biblioteca Nueva, 2005); Boris N. Liedtke, Embracing a Dictatorship: U.S. relations with Spain, 1945–1953 (New York, St. Martin's, 1998); Arturo Jarque Íñiguez, Queremos esas Bases: El Acercamiento de Estados Unidos a la España de Franco (Alcalá de Henares, Centro de Estudios Norteamericanos, Universidad de Alcalá, 1998); Antonio Marquina Barrio, España en la Politica de Suguridad Occidental: 1939–1986 (Madrid, Servicio de Publicaciones del E.M.E., 1986); R. Richard Rubottom and J. Carter Murphy, Spain and the United States: since World War II (New York, Praeger, 1984); Arthur P. Whitaker, Spain and the Defense of the West: ally and liability (New York, Council on Foreign Relations, 1961). 2. This will be briefly described below. For an in-depth examination, see Neal Moses Rosendorf, 'Be El Caudillo's guest: the Franco regime's quest for rehabilitation and dollars after World War II via the promotion of U.S. tourism to Spain,' Diplomatic History, 30(3), June 2006. 3. See below in text. 4. For example, the future Spanish cult film auteurs Jess Franco and Paul Naschy. Jess Franco was an uncredited extra in Mike Todd's mammoth production Around the World in 80 Days (1956), served as an uncredited production assistant on King Vidor's Solomon and Sheba (1959), and was a second-unit director on Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight (1966). Paul Naschy had a bit role in Nicholas Ray's films King of Kings (1961) and 55 Days at Peking (1963). (See entries for Jesus Franco and Paul Naschy at the Encylopedia of Fantastic Film and Television Website at http://www.eofftv.com/names/f/fra/franco_jesus_main.htm, as well as the Internet Movie Database entries on Franco and Naschy at http://www.imdb.com). 5. Most notably in Anthony Mann's El Cid, 1961, produced by Samuel Bronston (see below in text). 6. For example in Jean Negulesco's The Pleasure Seekers, 1964. 7. This gigantism ran counter to the period's most forward-looking European cinema trends, the minimalist, low-budget Neo-Realist movement and its more-polished aesthetic successors in Italy and France's Nouvelle Vague. N.B. the late S. Frederick Gronich, the former vice-president of the Motion Picture Export Association of America [MPEA], was insistent that both the Neo-Realist and New Wave movements were underwritten by Hollywood funding, as part of the MPEA's program to meet Italian and French domestic film production quotas. Author interview with S. Frederick Gronich, Los Angeles, CA, 1996. 8. This point is the product of an ongoing colloquy between cultural historian John Trumpbour and the author. To be sure, plenty of grand-scale film-making took place during the early postwar period elsewhere in Europe, especially Britain and Italy. In the latter country, not only were there US epic productions like Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, and Cleopatra; there were also the more modestly budgeted but still visually sumptuous 'peplum' films, such as the two Steve Reeves Hercules film and The 300 Spartans. But the crucial difference was that, as far as we currently know, there was no official government political propaganda agenda at work in Britain or Italy concerning encouraging the production of certain cinematic subject matter. (N.B. I have had a hypothesis lingering in the background of my research for years concerning the British government in particular over some cinematic subject matter: World War II-themed and espionage films (such as those featuring super-spy James Bond) could have been seen by officials as good propaganda to place regularly before American audiences to remind them who their staunchest and most indispensable ally was, especially after the debacle of the Anglo-French-Israeli Suez Canal invasion in 1956, which placed the US and Britain at loggerheads. But I have not had the time to go on the research expedition to London to explore this possibility.) 9. Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Soft Power: the means to success in world politics (New York, Public Affairs, 2004), 5. 10. For a discussion of these anxieties, especially as they pertain to Europe, see for example Victoria de Grazia, Irresistible Empire: America's advance through 20th-century Europe (Cambridge, MA, Belknap Harvard, 2005), Richard H. Pells, Not Like Us: how Europeans have loved, hated, and transformed American culture since World War II (New York, Basic Books, 1997), Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Stephen Ricci (eds) Hollywood and Europe: economics, culture, national identity 1945–95 (London, British Film Institute Press, 1998); John Trumpbour, Selling Hollywood to the World: U.S. and European struggles for mastery of the global film industry, 1920–1950 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002); Ian Jarvie, Hollywood's Overseas Campaign: the North Atlantic movie trade, 1920–1950 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992). For a general discussion of 'cultural imperialism,' the standard point of entry is John Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism: a critical introduction (Baltimore, MA, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991). 11. For example, Fritz Lang, David Lean, Milos Forman, and John Woo, who brought with them to Hollywood such cinematic traditions as German Expressionism, English Romanticism, post-war Eastern European anti-authoritarianism, and Hong Kong's hyperkinetic ballets of stylized action. See Neal M. Rosendorf, 'Social and cultural globalization: concepts, history, and America's Role, in Joseph S. Nye and John D. Donahue (eds) Governance in a Globalizing World (Washington, DC, Brookings Institution Press, 2000), 118–119. 12. Most notably that of Columbia Pictures in its defense of Fred Zinnemann's controversial film Behold a Pale Horse (1964). See below in text for a discussion of this episode. 13. One can perceive recent analogous behavior by American media toward the People's Republic of China, including Rupert Murdoch's blocking of the BBC in the mid-1990s from his Star satellite television network, which was being beamed into China, and the aid software companies Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have provided to the PRC in its efforts to control domestic access to reading and posting online content. See for example Zhao, ibid.; William Shawcross, 'Rupert Murdoch,' Time, October 25, 1999, online at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/intl/article/0,9171,1107991025-33716-1,00.html; OpenNet Initiative, Internet Filtering in China in 2004–2005: a country study, online at http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/china/; Clive Thompson, 'Google's China Problem (and China's Google Problem),' New York Times Magazine, April 23, 2006. 14. The divorcement decrees were designed to strip the major studios outright of approximately half of the more than 3100 theaters they controlled as of 1945. Michael Conant, 'The impact of the Paramount decrees,' in Tino Balio (ed.) The American Film Industry (Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), 347–348, 362–363. 15. As Business Week noted sardonically about potential movie-goers' viewing options, 'Set owners, millions of them, were not going to pay to see mediocre films; they could watch similar entertainment at home for nothing.' ('A Turn for the Bigger,' Business Week, November 14, 1953, p. 149.) This is not to say that inexpensively produced films, or films about modest subjects, were abandoned by Hollywood. For example, Marty, the story of a lonely Bronx butcher, filmed on a shoestring budget in black and white and scripted by television writer Paddy Chayefsky, won the 1955 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay. Tino Balio, United Artists: the company that changed the film industry (Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), 79–82. 16. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer attempted to carry on its in-house production into the mid-1950s but ultimately had to bow to Hollywood's changed economic climate. Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System: Hollywood filmmaking in the studio era (New York, Pantheon, 1988), 462. 17. Domestic critics decried the practice as 'runaway production.' 18. Britain's Eady Plan was perhaps the best-known and most lucrative of these schemes. 19. For a full discussion of the respective merits and programs of these overseas destinations for Hollywood production, see Neal Moses Rosendorf, The life and times of Samuel Bronston, builder of 'Hollywood in Madrid'; a study in the international scope and influence of American popular culture, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 2000, chapter 5: 'Runaways, independents and blockbusters: Hollywood's shift toward foreign movie production in the 1950's and 1960's.' 20. See Rosendorf, 'Be El Caudillo's Guest,' passim. 21. 'Anteproyecto de Plan Nacional de Turismo,' July 1952, p. 2, section 49.02, box 14415, general heading 'Cultura,' General Archive of the Civil Administration of the State, Alcala de Henares, Spain [General Archive Alcala]. 22. Carlos F. Heredero, Las Huellas del Tiempo: Cine espanol, 1951–1961 (Valencia, Archivo de la Filmoteca de la Generalitat Valenciana, 1993), 29. 23. Trumpbour, passim. 24. US Embassy, Madrid to State Department, January 8, 1963, 'Efforts of Motion Picture Export Association of America to Persuade Spanish Government to Liberalize Restrictions on Distribution of United States Motion Pictures,' 852.452/1-863, Record Group 59, US Department of State Central Files [RG 59], US National Archives, College Park, Maryland [NA]. 25. 'Borrador Previo para un Estudio Sobre Fines y Medios de la Propaganda de Espana en el Exterior,' 'Borrador Previo para un Estudio Sobre Fines y Medios de la Propaganda de Espana en el Exterior,' dated August 1960, p. 12, in box 28353, section 49.06, heading 'Cultura,' General Archive Alcala. 26. Paramount vigorously denied both the rumors and that it had subsequently pulled its punches in the final version—all the studio would admit to was that it had given a script draft to the Spanish Consul in San Francisco, whose suggestions for revisions, Paramount claimed, had been ignored utterly. ('Off the Hollywood Wire,' New York Times, February 14, 1943, in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' clipping file, MHL. However, while there is no archival substantiation to date of State Department pressure on the producers, one reviewer offered this assessment at the time of the film's release: 'How about the fascists—there was all that talk about Franco interference with the script—do the fascists ever get mentioned? Ans[wer:] Never; every place the word 'fascist' appeared in [screenwriter] Dudley Nichols' script, Paramount substituted the word 'Nationalist.' Furthermore, they call the Loyalists 'Republicans' all the way through it, too so it's all pretty confusing.' Still, even with evident tampering, 'The net effect of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' can scarcely be called pro-Franco,' the reviewer conceded. (John T. McManus, 'The Tongue-Tied 'Bell' Tolls Dully,' PM Reviews, July 15, 1943, in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' clipping file, MHL.) In an ironic coda, when Hilton Hotels opened the Castellana Hilton in Madrid in 1953, one of the American celebrities on hand for the dedication festivities was Gary Cooper, who had portrayed the anti-fascist Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls a decade earlier. See 'Old Cowhand,' Time, July 27, 1953, p. 17. 27. 'Spanish Censure Hollywood Films: Academy of Medicine Also Finds Variety of Faults in American Psychiatry Methods,' Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1950, p. 28, in 'Spain—Motion Picture Industry 1950s' file, Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences [MHL], Beverly Hills, CA. 28. Paul Preston, Franco: a biography (New York, Basic Books, 1994), 417–418; Aurora Bosch and M. Fernanda del Rincón, Dreams in a dictatorship: Hollywood and Franco's Spain, 1939–1956, in Reinhold Wagnleitner and Elaine Tyler May (eds) 'Here, There and Everywhere': the foreign politics of American popular culture (Hanover, NH, and London, University Press of New England, 2000), 100. N.B. While the chapter cited in the latter volume contains some useful information on the Franco regime's policy concerning Hollywood films that sought Spanish distribution, it says nothing about Hollywood productions in Spain or the regime's policies toward them. 29. Heredero, 20. 30. See for example memorandum from the US Embassy, Madrid to the State Department, 'Motion Picture Association of America: Distribution of American Films in Spain,' dated November 14, 1957; memorandum from US Embassy, Madrid to State Department, 'MOTION PICTURES [sic]; Government Measures to Support Spanish Motion Picture Industry', dated March 11, 1958; memorandum from US Embassy, Madrid to State Department, 'New Agreement Between the Spanish Government and the Motion Picture Export Association of America, Inc. (MPEAA),' dated March 26, 1959, all in folder, 852.452/1-3056, box 4621, RG 59, NA; Antonio Valles Copeiro del Villar, Historia de la Politica de Fomento del Cine espanol (Valencia, Filmoteca, Generalitat Valenciana, Institut Valencia d'Arts Esceniques, Cinematografia i Musica, Conselleria de Cultura, Educacio i Ciencia, 1992), 72. 31. Report from American Embassy, Madrid, to US Department of State, 'The Motion Picture Industry in Spain,' dated February 8, 1960, p. 4, in folder 852.44/2-2660, Box 2583, RG 59, NA. 32. Report from American Embassy, Madrid, to US Department of State, 'The Motion Picture Industry in Spain,' dated February 8, 1960, p. 22. 33. Report from American Embassy, Madrid, to US Department of State, 'The Motion Picture Industry in Spain,' dated February 8, 1960, p. 34. 34. The one unalloyed masterpiece of Spanish cinema during this period was Luis Bunuel's Viridiana (1960), in which the Franco regime got far more than it had bargained for when it momentarily welcomed back the renowned director from his Mexican exile and received a brilliant exercise in anti-Catholic blasphemy in return. The film, which among other things depicts the repeated rape of a saintly nun, would win the Palm d'Or at Cannes, which theoretically might burnish Spain's reputation as the source of quality motion pictures. The regime, which fashioned itself as the defender of the Catholic Church, did not see it that way and banned the film and banished the film-maker. 35. Letter from Gwynne Ornstein (wife of George Ornstein and daughter of Mary Pickford) to Mary Pickford, January 11, 1961, in folder, 'Family: Gwynne and Bud Ornstein, #1', Mary Pickford Collection, Herrick Special Collections, MHL; 'Bud Ornstein Gets Honor From Spain,' Hollywood Reporter, May 9, 1968, 'George Ornstein' clipping file, MHL. Ornstein would later transfer to London, where, as UA's head of European operations, he would help shepherd both the early James Bond films and the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night into production. 36. For the history of United Artists, see Balio, United Artists. 37. John Cabrera, an Anglo-Spanish cinematographer who was then employed by Technicolor in the UK and assigned to Decameron Nights, recalls that the film crew was overwhelmingly British, with a few Spaniards working in minor technical positions; Spanish production facilities in the early 1950s were of a low quality, and Spanish technicians 'were behind the times.' Author interview via telephone with John Cabrera, Jan. 2006. 38. Ibid. 39. 'Spanish Film Market Expanding—Fregonese,' Hollywood Reporter, April 1, 1954, in 'Spain—Motion Picture Industry' file, MHL. 40. Untitled New York Times, August 1, 1954, in the clipping file, MHL. on in an was and had even offered the of his for But still on a New This Week Magazine, 4, both in the clipping file, MHL. from of of Industry and to the of and Ministry of and January in the file, Ministry of all Spanish government in by of being in Spain by Ornstein in the folder, Robert Collection, Arts Special Collections, Los Angeles, CA. February 1955 there was placed before the at the Madrid, the production of Robert the will later in El and in Spain February 25, in the clipping file, in Spain,' Film in Picture Industry' clipping file, MHL. for November 14, in the clipping file, MHL. New York Times, April for November 14, for November 14, in Spain for American Hollywood Reporter, November in 'Spain—Motion Picture Industry MHL. of article by 'For of in folder, box 14, Collection, Library Special Collections, University of Los Angeles, CA. Letter from to General of and Ministry of and in and file, Ministry of from March 9, 1956, in and file, Ministry of from of Ministry of Industry and to the General of and Ministry of and January 1956, in and file, Ministry of Letter from the of and to the of the March 15, 1956, in and file, Ministry of in by in Spain,' October 1956, in and the clipping file, MHL. from the General of and to the of and April 27, 1956, in and file, Ministry of y el y de April in and file, Ministry of y April in and file, Ministry of y from the General of and to the Films May 25, 1956, in and file, Ministry of would be to script on one of his most films, the (1959), in to meet with the Franco regime's This motion which was filmed on in depicts the of to from a by a In to a Spanish for the film, in Spanish to which the regime on the that it Catholic 'The Motion Picture Industry in Spain,' from US Embassy, Madrid, to the US Department of State, February 8, 1960, in folder box 2583, RG 59, NA. from Spanish de June in and file, Ministry of telephone with of the 1996. the of his film to the Hollywood by writer his in a Letter from George Ornstein to Mary Pickford, May 1959, in folder, 'Family: Gwynne and Bud Ornstein, #1', Mary Pickford Collection, Special Collections, MHL. N.B. Anthony was the director of producer with 'For the of they had not for Spain and the 1960, p. 4, in file, Film Time, April 1959, p. from George Ornstein to the Ministry of and in and file, Ministry of and For in May 27, 1959, to from George Ornstein, United to General of and June 1959, in and file, Ministry of Letter from George Ornstein, United to General of and June 1959, in and file, Ministry of George The Film June 9, 1960, in 'George Ornstein' file, MHL. 'The of the New York Times, April in clipping file, MHL. James the US State Department on in when the producer sought in the United from James to American June 28, in folder, James D. Park, 72. Bronston to Paul for 23, in Paul clipping file, Hollywood Reporter, November 1958; to Los Angeles Times, October 27, all in Paul clipping file, MHL; of and John Paul October in John Paul Inc. and Thomas J. US of New York November National Archives and Administration of as by 23, 1953, in of clipping file, MHL. from the as noted 'runaway took place within which with a film of which foreign could John Author interview with Paul Jr., former vice-president of Samuel Bronston CA, Paul Jr., 'The Madrid Movie of of M. 1, of Frederick M. October both in John Paul Inc. and Thomas J. November John Franco this at in part as a the to the Spanish whom he John Preston, in Paul Movie by New York Times, August 1958; Paul Los Angeles Times both in Paul film clipping MHL. by Paul in Paul film clipping MHL. Bronston August 9, clipping file, Variety Los Angeles, thanks to Paul G. Nagle of the William Morris Agency, with whom I am a biography of Samuel Bronston of Texas Press, in for his aid in clipping of John J. the of in the United States from to at S. January 1960, in clipping file, Variety of see and New August p. see as well to U.S. for for Italian Motion Picture August p. which the Italian to to in Industry clipping folder, MHL.) see 'Hollywood for a be Motion Picture October 2, p. by October both in Industry clipping folder, MHL. See 1. in D. would to Spain and be a with See in de folder, Archives of the Ministry of Author Bronston CA, Dr. William Bronston CA, and Bronston London, 1996. John would in through the the most in Catholic in among them the of the for the of would be in by John's Paul in on the of the to online at The King of Kings script portrayed and as to from while was in historian the of the who were a in at the time of Ministry (see A of the (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, of Distribution to be by Hollywood Reporter, April 1, 1960, in clipping file, MHL; John shepherd of the world John would Franco's at the of the in the would ultimately
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