New Chaplin Film “Communistic” – Nazi Prohibition originally published in the Manchester Guardian, February 17, 1936
Berlin, February 17
Charlie Chaplin‘s new film, “Modern Times” has been prohibited in Germany. Reuter was informed at the Propaganda Ministry this afternoon that there was at present no prospect that the picture would be shown in this country. Another Nazi spokesman said that reports from abroad had indicated that the picture had a “Communist tendency” and this was no doubt the reason why the picture was unacceptable.
This is the latest move in the Nazi drive to purge Germany of Chaplin. In recent months Charlie Chaplin’s films, which used frequently to b revived in Germany, have been vanished from the screen on account, it had been presumed, of doubts existing here as to the Aryan purity of the comedian’s ancestry. Picture postcards of Chaplin, which used to be displayed in shop-windows all over Berlin, have now vanished, and it is understood that by official order no more are now being issued.
When the famous Rivels clowns recently came to a leading Berlin music hall with their act, which used to include a parody of Charlie Chaplin, the clown who played the mock Chaplin abandoned his little mustache and bowler and appeared in another disguise. — Reuter
