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.

This is an interesting propaganda film from Hollywood in the early 1950s. While in the early 1940s, Hollywood had experienced a short love affair with the Russians (mostly thanks to the US becoming allies with the Russians against the Axis), this film represents a different era--one where fear of spreading Communism and Stalinism gripped much of the world. This film is a far from subtle and occasionally heavy-handed short film about the menace of international Communism and was narrated by many of the biggest Red-haters in Hollywood (such as Robert Taylor). While nowadays, many in Hollywood have a bit of nostalgia for the old Soviet Union (or at least use moral relativism to make the Western nations seem somehow comparable to it), this was a time when there was great dread of Communism spreading everywhere--thanks to statements by Stalin himself that they would do so.

From a historical point of view, this is an amazing look back into the scary days of the nuclear arms race, though as I said above it's all very heavy-handed. While the basic message is true, the silly way that Communism was passed off as comparable to a "snake oil salesman" was a bit goofy and this comparison probably caused more laughs than anything else. Still, an important little film and interesting history lesson from an era that seems so very long ago.

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.

The Hoaxters only rates a four out of ten. The production value is very high, and it has big-name stars doing the narration, but the subject is so repugnant that it is almost nauseating to watch.

I'm glad it wasn't listed as a Documentary, because it is certainly anything but. Its purpose is indoctrination, pure and simple. It is sort of the American version of a Leni Riefenstahl film, except that her films are a lot more upbeat and enjoyable to watch.

It starts out equating Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito. Then, the first banner headline word zooms across the screen: "COMMUNISM" Almost immediately, Stalin is equated with the first three. "All dictators are the same," is chanted throughout the film at intervals in between segments of the narration.

The film is a classic example of what George Orwell termed "double-think." It rails against "The Big Lie" while at the same moment spouting some of the most incredible whoppers I have ever heard! Just a minor example is J. Edgar Hoover, the King of Blackmail, stating that he would never want to see anyone publicly embarrassed as a result of his investigations.

At one point, it is railing against dictators and the one-party system, and in the same breath has the nerve to show film footage of Senator Joseph McCarthy!

The thing I personally found most offensive was its presentation that all the anti-war protests at the White House were engineered and funded by the International Communist Party, and that as soon as Stalin and Hitler had a falling out, the demonstrations instantly evaporated.

The film kept my interest. In fact, it is fascinating. But rather in the same morbid way as I imagine watching a train wreck taking place would be.

At the very least, "The Hoaxters" is worth watching as a lesson in history, and also as a textbook example of propaganda techniques which are still widely used and very effective today.

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.