In his day, Chaplin was faced with not only a new industry with the advent of sound film but also a completely new culture in which he didn’t seem to fit. Eyman understands the moral misgivings of Chaplin that contrasted with his era and argues that such issues, however we may interpret them, should not continue to get in the way of the artist’s films. The problem in Chaplin’s lifetime was twofold—both his agnostic political non-leaning and his interest in younger women. Of course, nobody would cancel Chaplin today over the dubious claims that he was a communist. What remains problematic is the artist’s interest in teenagers (legal, yes, but uncomfortably younger than he was).
Those who knew Chaplin confirmed that, in his political life, he was never nefarious but was, at worst, ignorant of the ramifications of his actions. He was too much of a free spirit to recognize that he was bucking social norms. When the Allies were celebrating the victory of World War II, Chaplin wept for all deaths, even the Russian mothers crying for their sons. Chaplin saw this as a cry for more humanity, but to many others, this was a clear signal of support for Russia. “Patriotism is the greatest insanity the world has ever suffered,” according to Chaplin. “I have been all over Europe […] Patriotism is rampant everywhere and the result is going to be another war.”
Chaplin was open-minded to a fault, boorishly giving communism and Stalin the benefit of the doubt. He saw that each country was fighting for itself, so why shame Russia for doing the same? When the Russians were defeated, he didn’t see victory for the Allies. He saw only more suffering. This worried columnists who felt that Chaplin was “more pro-Communist than he was anti-Fascist.” Some of this stemmed from an FBI informant inside Hollywood that Eyman believes was Cecil B. DeMille, another one of Hollywood’s walking contradictions. (Eyman published an excellent biography in 2010 titled Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille.)
Many of Chaplin’s friends, including writer and political activist Max Eastman, agreed that the artist was a consistent pacifist and any of his comments should not be taken as a line drawn in the sand. After all, as a successful immigrant, Chaplin said, “[s]omehow I feel that in America lies the hope of the whole world.” However, being friends with a radical like Eastman was suspect enough for many as soon as the Red Scare swept the United States. The attacks were increasingly nasty, such as Hopper’s angry diatribes to Hoover. Chaplin was frequently mentioned by both the US Senate in 1941 (who went after anti-fascist films) and the US House in 1947 (who went after communists, and who subpoenaed him that year).