Mission to Moscow (1943)Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to America as an advocate of Stalinism. Director:Michael Curtiz |
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Mission to Moscow (1943)Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to America as an advocate of Stalinism. Director:Michael Curtiz |
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Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Walter Huston | ... | ||
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Ann Harding | ... |
Mrs. Marjorie Davies
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Oskar Homolka | ... |
Maxim Litvinov, Foreign Minister
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George Tobias | ... |
Freddie
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Gene Lockhart | ... | ||
Eleanor Parker | ... |
Emlen Davies
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Richard Travis | ... |
Paul
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Helmut Dantine | ... |
Maj. Kamenev
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Victor Francen | ... |
Vyshinsky, chief trial prosecutor
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Henry Daniell | ... | ||
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Barbara Everest | ... |
Mrs. Litvinov
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Dudley Field Malone | ... | |
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Roman Bohnen | ... |
Mr. Krestinsky
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Maria Palmer | ... |
Tanya Litvinov
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Moroni Olsen | ... |
Col. Faymonville
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"Mission to Moscow" was made at the behest of F.D.R. in order to garner more support for the Soviet Union during WWII. It was from the book by Joseph E. Davies, former U.S. Ambassador To Russia. The movie covers the political machinations in Moscow just before the start of the war and presents Stalin's Russia in a very favorable light. So much so, that the movie was cited years later by the House Un-American Activities Commission and was largely responsible for the screenwriter, Howard Koch being Blacklisted. Written by E. Barry Bruyea <[email protected]>
This movie is a piece of fawning, pro-Stalin propaganda. The usual excuse for it, that it reflected patriotic sentiments of the era, can be equally applied to "Triumph of the Will" - there is no excuse for this lying travesty. Fakery follows fakery in this movie - the Ambassador's wife visiting Mrs. Molotov's perfume factory, and declaring the products superior to those of Paris; the Ambassador shaming his properly security-conscious subordinate by declaring it unthinkable that anyone in the Embassy would say anything that they'd be reluctant to say to Stalin's face; the buxom Soviet peasant woman chiding the Ambassador for effete American reluctance to have their women go down the coal mines the way "liberated" Russian women do. And these are only the comic relief. The serious scenes, such as the Moscow show trials, are just beyond pathetic, with the Ambassador commenting that the well-rehearsed confessions of the victims were uncoerced. In its whole-hearted praise of one of the bloodiest tyrants of the twentieth century, this movie is too corrupt and infuriating even to be funny.