The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler by Ben Urwand - review by David Cesarani

David Cesarani

Reel Deals

The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler

By

Harvard University Press/The Belknap Press 318pp £19.95
 

Ben Urwand’s exposé of Hollywood’s dealings with the Third Reich could have been a fine book. It rests on original research and contains significant archival findings. But the analysis is compromised by an overheated narrative style, irresponsible language and a lack of contextualisation. 

The Collaboration has two major themes. The first is Hitler’s interest in film – Hollywood movies in particular – and the efforts of Nazi Germany both to control its image on celluloid and to use film to influence its population. The second is the pusillanimous response of the US film

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