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Charlie Chaplin always called himself a pacifist when it came to politics, a misconception for some who labeled him a socialist or communist. One of Chaplin's concluding lines in his black comedy, April 1947's "Monsieur Verdoux," was "wars, conflict - it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow!" Chaplin's first movie in seven years was released just when Congress began its sub-committee hearings on Communist sympathizers in Hollywood. His timing couldn't have been worse.

Since his first all-talking film premiered in 1940's "The Great Dictator," Chaplin's public image had eroded by paternity suits and FBI investigations into his private life. A messy highly-publicized affair with aspiring actress Joan Barry, who claimed her infant daughter was his, dragged on for months in the early 1940s. Piggybacking the scandal was the FBI charge he violated the Mann Act by transporting a woman over state lines for sex. Acquitted on that charge, Chaplin, 54, further inflamed his detractors by marrying his fourth wife, 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill, in June 1943. By the time Orson Welles approached him with the idea of making a film about French serial killer Henri Landru, Chaplin was intrigued by its morbid comic possibilities.

The plot in "Monsieur Verdoux" centers around an unemployed bank clerk who murders aging widows to support his family. The black comedy sent film censors in a tizzy, including those at the Hays Office, which Chaplin was able to pacify by making cuts without affecting its overall theme. But the Memphis, Tennessee censors banned the picture, while veteran groups such as the Catholic War Veterans and the American Legion protested the film as being "Un-American." The movie did have its adherents, with film critic James Agee the most vocal supporter, praising it as "one of the few indispensable works of our time." The controversies in Chaplin's life as well as the topical nature of the movie diminished ticket sales in the United States, but in Europe, especially in France, it was a massive hit.

Chaplin himself loved "Monsieur Verdoux," calling it "the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made." It was the first time he didn't play his beloved Tramp since his film debut in 1914 ("The Great Dictator" had his Jewish barber dressed in similar clothes as his bum.). His character, Henri Verdoux, who also went under several aliases, is completely opposite of the poverty-stricken hobo. Verdoux dresses impeccably, is dishonest to the core, and plays the stock market with the money he swindles from his victims. But Chaplin still retained his physical comedy, especially in the scenes where comedian Martha Raye, as Annabella Bonheur, escapes multiple death schemes by Verdoux. Film historian Danny Peary loved the scene of "Verdoux's attempt to drown her 'American Tragedy'-style in a lake. When she suspects something is fishy, he quickly sits down, legs crossed, with the hilariously innocent expression of a naughty five-year-old." Chaplin spent nearly three years on the script, detailing every facet of the plot. "There wasn't a gesture that wasn't written out," recalled the comedian, whose previous screenplays simply gave broad outlines of the scenes which were improvised on the spot. He defended Verdoux's subject matter, saying, "I saw a great chance to take a tragedy and satirize it, as I did with Nazi Germany in 'The Great Dictator.' Crime becomes an absurdity when it is shown incongruously, out of proportion. M. Verdoux feels that murder is the logical extension of business. But he is never morbid, and the picture is by no means morbid in treatment." Chaplin deflected the potential of bad reviews of "Monsieur Verdoux" from the press by hiring highly respected press agent Russell Birdwell to create free positive publicity. Birdwell contacted columnist Heddy Hopper claiming this was Chaplin's greatest picture, outshining anything Hollywood had produced in recent times. He told her he would publicly eat the negative of the movie if she didn't agree. After seeing the film, Hopper wired back, "DEAR BIRD START EATING HOPPER." The Academy Awards didn't feel the same way, nominating "Monsieur Verdoux" for Best Original Screenplay. The Village Voice ranks it as the 112th best film in its Top 250 'Best Films of the Century.' And it is one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die." Unfortunately for Chaplin, his troubles weren't over with government officials; the film just reinforced what they believed Chaplin was all about.

The film noir style was crossing over nearly all genres in Hollywood, and comedy was no exception. Noirs' usual crime and detective settings with a heavy dose of German Expressionism was parodied in Bob Hope's April 1947 "My Favorite Brunette," with Dorothy Lamour playing the femme fatale.

Like most noir films, "My Favorite Blonde" opens in the present, with Ronnie Jackson (Bob Hope) sitting on Death Row about to be executed for murder. With newspaper reporters jotting down his every word, Ronnie tells in typical noir flashback fashion how he ended up stepping into the gas chamber. The comedy is chock-a-block filled with movie references and cameo appearances of Hollywood stars, leading off with Alan Ladd, well known for playing private eyes. Ronnie is a baby photographer whose ambition is to be a detective. His office is next door to Sam McCloud's (Ladd), who asks Ronnie to man his phones over the weekend. The request kicks off a comedic romp when Carlotta Montay (Lamour) enters McCloud's office, thinking Ronnie is a private eye. She gives him a map her missing husband left behind, which a gang of criminals desperately want.

"The genre spoofed fits Hope's style," writes film reviewer Stuart Galbraith. "For one thing, the evocative Raymond Chandler-type narration commonly found in such films allows for a lot of funny narration by Hope (e.g., 'An hour later we were at the Poulet d'or - one of those real swanky cafés where they eat mink for breakfast.')." "My Favorite Brunette" was the second of Hope's 'My Favorite....' movies, the first 1942's "My Favorite Blonde," and the last 1951's "My Favorite Spy" with Hedy Lamarr. The three were among Hope's most financially successful films. Bob formed his own film production company, Hope Enterprises, Inc., with "Brunette" his first. Other stars in the comedy were Lon Chaney, Jr. And Peter Lorre, members of the gangster ring looking for the map. Chaney plays strongman Willie, a carbon copy of the lumbering Lennie in 1939's "Of Mice and Men." Hope references the movie by promising to buy him a rabbit. Elliott Nugent, who directed Hope in his earlier 1939's "The Cat and the Canary," made sure Chaney had the funniest scenes with Hope. Lorre's character Kismet is similar to his Joel Cairo in 1941's "The Maltese Falcon," always ready with his knives or guns. Bing Crosby, Hope and Lamour's regular partner in the 'Road to...' movies, makes a memorable appearance in the end.

Hope, 43, displays in "My Favorite Brunette" a youthful vigor which belies his age. "Hope was great at the one-liners," observed film reviewer Patrick Nash. The movie "demonstrates just how great he actually was." Hope is seen golfing on the sanitarium grounds with a patient who plays with an imaginary ball. Hope picked up the game in Winnipeg, Canada, during a tour ten years before, and was a consistent four handicap. He was a popular foursome player with several United States presidents. He said of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who gave up golf for painting, "Fewer strokes, you know. It's wonderful how you can start out with three strangers in the morning, play 18 holes, and by the time the day is over you have three solid enemies." Using a golf club as a prop during his USO shows over the years, he established under his name the PGA tournament in Palm Springs, California in 1960, which lasted for decades.

Singer Billie Holiday produced a number of hit records during her lifetime, and had consistently sold out large venues such as Carnegie Hall. She was a tremendous influential voice in jazz, swing and the blues In her lifetime. Yet she appeared in only one feature film, April 1947's "New Orleans." The dramatic musical showcases some of the most notable musicians in the early jazz era, led by Louis Armstrong. Holiday's on-screen presence gives the Arthur Lubin-directed film a special place in cinema.

Holiday jumped at the opportunity of starring in a feature film when she was approached to be in "New Orleans." Her only film appearance was brief in Duke Ellington's 1935 musical short 'Symphony in Black,' but this role in the full-length movie was large, playing the girlfriend to Louis Armstrong (as himself). She was vastly disappointed, however, hearing her character would be a house maid. But she swallowed her pride by saying, "I'll be playing a maid, but she's really a cute maid." Holiday has an opportunity to sing several songs, including 'The Blues are Brewin',' 'Farewell to Storyville,' and 'Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans,' the last clearly superior compared to the movie's lead white actress Dorothy Patrick's rendition towards the end of the picture. In fact, director Lubin said after the production was finished, Holiday was a scene-stealer, making Patrick look like "a hole in the screen" in comparison. Holiday, however, saw her on-screen presence diminished on the cutting room floor. "They had taken miles of footage of music and scenes," Holiday later recalled, "but none of it was left in the picture. I know I wore a white dress for a number I did, and that was cut out of the picture." "New Orleans" was originally planned to tell the story of jazz, featuring a black couple (Holiday and Armstrong) delivering their unique brand of jazz in the city's red-light district of Storyville in 1917. The neighborhood was shuttered by the U. S. Navy that year because the military brass felt it was too much of a temptation for its sailors to visit its many brothels. But the independent Majestic Productions, worried southern theaters wouldn't show its picture, steered away from the nearly-all black cast to have whites headline the movie. Co-producer and original story writer Herbert Biberman, made script changes to satisfy the racial prejudices at the time. Shortly after "New Orleans'" premier Biberman went before Congress, and refused to name Communist members working in Hollywood, serving six months in prison. Biberman's new script featured the white Smith family, who relocated from Baltimore to New Orleans. Their daughter Miralee (Patrick), trained in opera, falls in love with jazz as soon as she hears it when her family's maid, Endie (Holiday), takes her to the nightclub of Nick Duquesne's (Arturo de Cordova).

Film critic Edward McNulty points out at the time "New Orleans" was made, "The film is similar to others at the time in that the rulers of society regard classical music as the proper music for decent people and judged jazz and other forms of popular music as vulgar and demeaning." Nick's nightclub confines Armstrong's band to the basement with his opulent gambling casino located upstairs. The movie does introduce a Who's Who in jazz, with legendary musicians such as Kid Ory (trombone), Mutt Carey (trumpet), Bud Scott (guitar) among others displaying their incredible talents.. "New Orleans" is a historical account of the emerging trend of jazz's popularity and its acceptance in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Mainstream white bands and singers adapted the style with little acknowledgement of the black musicians who originally created jazz. This trend is demonstrated when Miralee, in her New York City concert debut, transitions from singing opera to the jazz tune "Do You Know What It Means," earlier sung by Holiday. In the movie's conclusion Woody Herman and His Orchestra support Miralee's singing the song, complete with a large string accompaniment, symbolizing the whites' adoption of jazz. Reviewer Edward McNulty noticed, "White controllers of the music and communications industry will favor Whites over Blacks, rerecording a song by Blacks for White performers, who reap huge profits when the song makes the Hit Parade." Twelve years after the release of "New Orleans," Billie Holiday experienced a fatal heart attack in the summer of 1959 at age 44. She died nearly penniless after her separated husband, a mob enforcer, had swindled the singer of her life savings.