Isolationist Films

[MikeBSG]

This was inspired by the thread on anti-fascist/interventionist movies.

Usually books mention the interventionist Hollywood films, like "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" "The Great Dictator" and "The Mortal Storm." Nobody really mentions films that had an isolationist slant, although public opinion polls showed that most Americans wanted to keep out of WWII.

Years ago, I saw a series "The Movies of 1939," which not only showed the classic movies of that year, but also a cartoon and a newsreel. Well, "The Wizard of Oz" was preceded by a newsreel that showed Franco marching into Madrid in triumph, and "There's no place like home" sounded quite different at the end of that movie.

I've wondered if isolationist sentiment runs through "Northwest Passage," in which the colonists complain about getting killed in a war for the benefit of the British and French. "Drums Along the Mohawk" has British villains. In "Son of Frankenstein," the American-educated title character goes back to the US, leaving Europe to its monsters.

When I recently watched "Man in the Iron Mask" (1939) on TCM, I was struck how it ended with the good king saying something to the effect that France would always have brave men to defend it. Anti-Hitler, possibly, but perhaps also expressing a hope that France could keep Hitler penned up in Europe without the US getting involved this time?

What do you think?