America is neutral, and we are Americans. Our policy is one hundred percent

neutrality. There will be no propaganda pictures from Warner Brothers.

The two Warner Brothers obviously did not share the same opinion regarding the role of the Hollywood film industry during the turbulent period surrounding the Second World War. However, since the advent of the motion picture, the American film industry had played a vital role in influencing the social consciousness of its audience, regardless of the intentions of the filmmakers. Throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century, Hollywood played its part in pulling the American population through the unfortunate circumstances they encountered, including World War I and the Depression. Providing that same service from 1939 to 1945 was only to be expected.

By the time the political scene in Europe started to heat up in the early 1930s, Hollywood had emerged as the primary source of entertainment for the majority of the domestic population; "each week eighty million Americans - two thirds of the country's population - lived the Hollywood experien

Eventually, conflict arose between the Office of War Information and the Hollywood filmmakers regarding the portrayal of the British. Officials within the Bureau of Motion Pictures (BMP), a branch of the OWI, sought a more realistic and even more sympathetic representation of contemporary Britain. Rather than the stereotypical 'British' film, they called for films that portrayed the war as being fought for and by "the common man." In general, certain elements within the BMP and even in the British Ministry of Information (MoI), felt that Hollywood maintained a "predilection for portraying snobbery, stuffiness and class distinctions as being the definitive characteristics of Britain."

raises the level of audience appreciation whatever the subject touched.

Unfortunately, demonstrating support for the war, regardless of motive, proved to be rather problematic in the context of the American stance toward the war, which was classified as "a special neutrality, a Rooseveltian neutrality - a defensive neutrality." Since the start of the war in September 1939, an intense debate had been raging between the interventionist and isolationist factions in the U.S. In Hollywood, this dispute came to a head in September 1941, when an influential group of isolationists, led by Senator Gerald P. Nye, charged that the film industry "had embarked on a devious campaign to inject its entertainment pictures with propaganda, and drag America into the war." This official protest brought about Senate Resolution 152, which enabled a dual inquiry into film propaganda and film monopoly. The recent films of the Big Eight - Paramount, MGM, RKO, Warner Bros., Twentieth Century-Fox, Columbia, Universal and United Artists - were all examined for "warmongering" content.

In the American market, Mrs. Miniver became the most popular film of 1942, and probably the most successful 'British' film of the war. According to Glancy, the "depiction of strong, maternal women as a source of consistency and comfort is paralleled by their depiction of Britain , the 'mother country' of the United States, as a timeless haven of peace and serenity." The image of the British people not as victims, but as determined survivors of the ravages of war, inspired American audiences and increased support for a cause they would eventually join. As the American writer Talbot Jennings claimed, Mrs. Miniver "was just the right British for us, and came at just the right time, too - that critical time when many people in this country were, for one reason or another, indifferent to Great Britain..."

their homelands than they are in the fortunes of the United States...I would

and dramatically many current themes, proves there is nothing incompatible

Unquestionably there are in Hollywood today, engaged by the motion

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2714
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)