(Guest post by S.T. Karnick of The American Culture)
Turner Classic Movies presents a grand total of two Hollywood movies about the dangers of international communism (and Communism) Wednesday night beginning at 8 EST. Will host Robert Osborne be as sympathetic to these films as he has always been toward anti-anticommunist movies?
Leo McCarey’s “My Son John” (1952) has been uniformly lambasted by mainstream critics since the day it was released — because the villains are Communists.
Yet Martin Scorsese, a smart cineaste and certainly no rabid anticommunist, classed the film among his all-time favorites and wrote very sympathetically and understandingly about it.
It’s actually a highly interesting film, and well worth watching, very much in the style of McCarey’s other non-comedy films of the 1930s and ’40s, such as “Love Affair” and “Going My Way.”
This clip (although of poor visual quality) gives a good sense of the film’s style and quality.
The second film, “I Was a Communist for the F.B.I” at 10:15 p.m. EST, follows an FBI agent whose patriotism is questioned when he goes undercover.
Tune in and decide for yourself. I’ve seen “My Son John,” and the critical reception toward it has been absurdly dismissive of this heartfelt and very absorbing film.
Had it been pro-Communist, I’m certain the reception would have been the very opposite, given that so many weak and inane films (such as “The Front”) have been falsely praised as courageous and brilliant.
NOTE: Please check out the comments section from someone who who helped program the TCM schedule referred to in this post.
Mr. Karnick responds:
Of course I’m glad you chose to program this film, Siren. As to the series description, only the two films I cited in my piece were listed as constituting the Wednesday night feature, which was what I was referring to. TCM’s “Theme of the Month” item on The Manchurian Candidate[listed it as playing on Feb. 27.
Mea culpa of believing TCM’s promo.
Given that Variety reviews have always been mostly about likely audience response, as exemplified by the review of MSJ, I think we can agree that citing one hardly constitutes refutation of the claim that the film got a very hostile reception from mainstream, influential critics of the time.
Bosley Crowther’s review is legendary for its vehemence. The subsequent writing about the film has overwhelmingly taken that tack as well.
Moreover, given that I cite Scorsese as liking the film, it’s incorrect to contend that I suggested no critics liked the film. I am aware of the contrarian opinions of Kehr, Bogdanovich, and Wood, and I commend them for it.
As to whether the likely reception of a pro-communist film would have been better, the answer is obviously yes. It’s not a debatable point at all, unless one likes to debate the obvious. As difficult as it may have been to see before TCM began, “Mission to Moscow” received very good treatment from critics and scholars, as have a whole boatload of inferior films such as “The Front,” as noted above.
Finally, please be assured that you are mistaken in thinking I intended to hold you or Mr. Lumenick up to criticism for programming “My Son John” and “I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.”
Quite the contrary! I directed readers to the films because I wanted them to be able to judge the films for themselves,
and my only criticism of TCM was in my expression of suspicion that Robert Osborne would be unsympathetic toward “My Son John.”
Turns out I was right about that.
But that’s not your responsibility, and I commend you and Mr. Lumenick for programming these films. Please keep up the good work.
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I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
If TCM wants to present anti-Communist films, shouldn’t they include “Dr. Zhivago”?
Thanks Toto for letting us know. Next time, maybe another day of warning might be good as I still missed the beginning but caught most of it. It’s apparent that the movie would be anathema to the Hollywood left. I mean they mention God and pray a lot, without a hint of irony. Whoa.
I am the blogger who co-programmed this series with Lou Lumenick of the New York Post. I agree with you that My Son John well deserves a second look; it is a multilayered and extremely intriguing what-if entry in the career of the great Leo McCarey. I consider it a half-formed masterpiece and regret that Walker’s death in mid-production robbed us of McCarey’s final vision. Lou and I are very proud to have brought it back to television after the single showing it received in 1970.
Some of your other points, however, require clarification. If you look at the series schedule you will find that, out of twenty films presented, not merely two but ten could easily qualify as anti-communist. Last night, for example, I Was a Communist for the FBI was followed by The Manchurian Candidate. If the latter movie does not also illustrate “the dangers of international communism,” I should like to know which one does. The other films range from essentially apolitical, to ambivalent, to the pro-Russian films made during World War II. The stated aim of the series was to document the changing views of Russia and communism as reflected in American movies. We could hardly do that if we restricted ourselves to a single type of film.
It is also not true that My Son John has been uniformly lambasted by mainstream critics. The initial reviews indeed were split along ideological lines; one nonpartisan observation came from Variety, which said My Son John faced a tough box-office atmosphere “because of usual public indifference to propaganda pix.” The truth of that observation can be seen from the fact that most of the overtly anti-communist movies didn’t do very well financially. The message was usually more successful when smuggled in things such as science fiction.
But over the years auteurist critics in particular have tried to resurrect My Son John. Among its champions have been Peter Bogdanovich, Dave Kehr and the late Robin Wood. For many years the problem was simply that the film wasn’t circulating, a fact which had as much to do with its dismal box-office failure as with any ideological agenda. Certainly you’d have had less of a problem finding I Was a Communist for the FBI, although that one has been of circulation for a while now too.
You state
Had it been pro-Communist, I’m certain the reception would have been the very opposite, given that so many weak and inane films (such as “The Front”) have been falsely praised as courageous and brilliant.
This is at best a highly debatable point, since several of the overtly pro-Russian films from the studio era that we included in the series also have been either very difficult to see (Mission to Moscow), largely forgotten (Counter-Attack, The Doughgirls) or available only in badly aged, recut prints (The North Star). And many of those also faced lackluster reviews even when first released.
In sum, I am happy that My Son John has another champion, but less happy to see the aims and programming criteria of TCM, Lou and myself maligned.