***
One more great scene from Charlie Chaplin’s wonderful movie, Modern Times. The set-up is that he’s just been released from the hospital (nervous breakdown from his last factory job), so he’s not fully aware of what is going on in the outside world.
The flag, of course, is red.
talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time…sheesh
Chaplin ended up in a situation not unlike the poor flag-waver. He had the temerity to stick up for working-class people at the wrong time in American history. He was accused of being a Communist by the US government, and his US passport was revoked. He was not allowed back into the country after visiting London for the world premiere of his film Limelight in 1952, at the height of the McCarthy red-baiting period.
Although Chaplin’s political views were definitely left-leaning, he almost certainly was not a member of the Communist Party. But he was so disgusted by his banning that he never actively fought it. “Whether I re-entered that unhappy country or not was of little consequence to me. I would like to have told them that the sooner I was rid of that hate-beleaguered atmosphere the better, that I was fed up of America’s insults and moral pomposity”