If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

I had heard about this film and recall seeing some scenes previously in some documentary on negative propaganda some time ago. It popped up on TCM. so I thought I'd watch it to see what the fuss was about, after all, one of my favorite actors, Walter Huston, "starred" in the film.After viewing Mission to Moscow and seeing what an example of a really bad film is, I have several questions. Was this actually shown in theaters? If so, did the audience pay to see it, or were they perhaps plucked off the streets and herded into the theater, and the doors locked, so they were compelled to see this awful film.How did they get the actors and crew to work on this "work of art". Blackmail? Why did Walter Huston, an great actor of enormous stature appear? Who knows? To sum up, after seeing this homage and paean to one of the most brutal dictators and awful political systems that was a cancer on human kind and unfortunately was around much longer that Hitler and his Nazis, I'm hard pressed to find that much difference between these two mass murder experts of the 20th century. I just wonder what should have been produced next for the screen after this sickening display, a musical tribute to warts, perhaps?I clicked on my name and this reference popped up. I had completely forgotten that I had reviewed this 40s Fantasy, so I read my thoughts as well as other movie goers reviews of this waste of film stock. After wasting my time, I decided that if I was able to edit my original words, I would like to add this: It would only be fair if Mel Brooks could take his characters of Hustler Max and Nebbish Leo Bloom from Brooks's masterpiece "The Producers" stage another play/musical like Springtime for Hitler" about another mass murderer and all round nice guy Joseph Stalin, perhaps naming this work of art "Sing a Song of Stalin, A Pocket Full of Purges".

I have read the reviews and can understand why so many dismiss this movie as propaganda.Once a person has an established world-view everything that goes against it is met with rejection,regardless of the actual facts. Most people think Stalin was a bloody dictator,not very smart,paranoid,wanted to dominate the world and generally spent most of his days thinking how can he kill more of his own people.That is how I used to think for over 20 years, until I looked at the actual evidence. I invite all of you to do the same.Have a look at the article called: Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union and book called Moscow 1937.This should be enough for many people to at least give this another thought. There are also works of the man himself (a collection of 17 books written by Joseph Stalin) which were translated into English by the Chinese.There is a lot more information available in Russian and that is the main reason people there consider Stalin to be the greatest leader of all times.

Extremely pro-Stalin & Soviet Union movie made in Hollywood at the very hight of WWII when Germany was on the verge, during the battle of Stalingrad, of knocking the USSR out of the war. Based on the book "Mission to Moscow" by the former US Soviet Ambassador Joseph E.Davies, who in fact introduces the film, were shown how the Soviet Union under the leadership of Premier Joseph Stalin was the envy of the free world in it's heroic struggle against Nazi Germany. It was the Soviet Red Army who that during the course of the war lost an estimated 9 million of its fighting man and women battling Nazi Germany.Given the job as Ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1937 by Pres. Roosevelt, Jack Young, Davies, Walter Huston, is given the assignment to check out what's going on in that country and report back to the president if it will be a reliable ally if a future conflict between Britian & France that breaks out with Nazi Germany. In what seems like no time at all Davies develops a love affair with the USSR and it's ruthless dictator Joseph or "Uncle Joe" as President Roosevelt calls him the Man of Steel himself Joseph V. Stalin played by the kind sweet and fatherly looking Mamart Kipper. The what seems like very naive Davies,who should have known better,is completely blown away by Uncle Joe's "great" accomplishments. That's in him bringing the backward and 19th century Russia into the 20th century with his series of 5 year economic plans. Plans not originated by "Uncle Joe" but his late boss and first leader of the Soviet Union Nickolai 'Nicky" Lennin.Even though very pro-Stalin the movie surprisingly doesn't skip over the notorious 1937/38 purge trials conducted by Stailn's henchmen in the Soviet Ministry of Justice and the dreaded NKVD. It was at those trials that the almost entire Soviet diplomatic and Red Army office corps were convicted and executed for treason. They were all accused in them planning with the exiled and deposed, by Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Sam Goldenberg, with the Hitler's Germany and Imperial Japan of trying to undermined and overthrow the Stalin regime. As It turned it wasn't treason that they were guilty of but Stalin's hysterical paranoia of feeling threatened by anyone close to him trying to throw him out of power!The movie goes on making excuse after excuse for Stalin's crimes,like the invasions of Poland Finland and the Baltic States,in that they were needed to get his country ready for the coming invasion by Hitler's Germany which he was certain was soon to come. Yet when the Nazi invasion finally came in June 1941 Stalin's well prepared for it Red Army was caught flat-footed having the German Army reach the very gates of Moscow before the year was out. Davies now back in the US and a private citizen does his best to get the American people, who at the time was very isolationist, ready to both supply the Soviet Union with military hardware as well as join it in it's battle against Germany. But as fate would have it it was japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, six months after Hitler invaded the USSR, that did the trick for both him and President Roosevelt. It was Pres.Roosevelt who's behind the scenes actions was doing everything to incite a German U-Boat attack on US shipping in order to get the US into the war. What was so ironic about that is that it was Hitler's Germany who did everything possible to avoid a conflict with the USA, even having his U-boats not return fire after being fired upon by the US Navy, not the US that was the first to declare war!Despite the Soviet Union being an ally of the US at the time of the films release it in fact bombed at the box office not even making back half of the 1.5 million dollars it took to produce it. when shown to Russian audiences in Moscow people watching it, in them knowing what a horror "Uncle Joe" Stalin really was, could't refrain from laughing out load when ever Davies showed his enthusiasm for the Stalin regime as well as "Uncle Joe" himself! Even if it meant a one way ticket to a Siberian gulag or Soviet firing squad if they were ever identified,with the lights in the theater turned on, of showing disrespect to "Uncle Joe" and his "great" accomplishments for the Russian people!P.S No matter how ridicules and historically inaccurate,in covering up Stalin's crimes, the film "Mission to Moscow" is the one thing it got right is that without the help of the USSR the US and its western allies would have never won the war against Nazi Germany. According to official German casualty statistics the German military lost an astounding 2,400,000 killed and missing together with almost 3,500,000 wounded in the fighting on the Eastern or Russian front alone! And that's only up to November 30, 1944 when the German military stopped keeping casualties statistics! That's without even counting the enormous losses that the German army suffered fighting against the Red Army from December 1944 to the end of the war in May 1945! Those tremendous losses of manpower as well as military equipment against the Soviet Union would have fully equipped and manned as much as 400 Nazi infantry and armored divisions! A German army of almost 6 million strong which could have been thrown against the US Britain and their allies in not only North Africa and Italy but in the savage and bloody battles of Western Europe in 1944/5 which would have well turned the tied of battle in Hitler's favor! In fact there would have been no possibility of a Western Front without an Eastern Front tying down as much as 80% of the German Army needed to engage the advancing some 8 to 10 million strong Red Army!

FOR MANY YEARS now, more than we care to admit to, we we have heard tales about this film and how it was virtually commissioned by the Roosevelt Administration as a Wartime propaganda piece; only to be indicted as an example of a great pro-communist sales pitch in those years after World War II. Finally, on the evening of January 21st In the Year of Our Lord 2010,we finally got to eyeball the film and make up our own mind.THAT WE SHOULD bear in mind that it was produced during the uncertainty of World War II, for a public skeptical about alliance with the Soviets; is paramount in our minds. It is with this attitude that we proceed in our sentimental journey into the world according to Warner Brothers.THERE WILL ALWAYS be questions asked later of how could we have such unprincipled allies; who stand for just about everything that is contrary to our way of life? The answer which we should always bear in mind is, perhaps highly simplistic; but oh so true. Be it the Western Allies with "Uncle Joe" (Stalin), or a sort of "Lend Lease" in the Middle East in the 1980's for Sadaam Houssein's Iraqui Forces in their war with Iran and the Ayatollah Khomanei, our old stand-by proverb stands true; that being: "Politics makes for Strange Bedfellows." Another that we like is, "The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend." WITH REGARDS TO the film, today's honoree, MISSION TO MOSCOW (Warner Brothers, 1943) we see what is a first class production of a finely made picture. There is no expense spared in its making. Master Director, Michael Curtiz, does a smooth, nearly flawless technical presentation on the screen. The sets are done up in an extra realistic style; rendering a great cinematic glimpse into Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and others. This, when coupled with some expertly executed cutting in of newsreel footage of Hitler, Stalin and the ceremonies in Germany as well as Mayday in Moscow.THE CAST ASSEMBLED is also top notch; although many appear in the sort of roles that could only be described as being against type. Gene Lockart, for example, is unable to bring the touch of humor and underlying warmth to his role as Premier Malotov (!!!), that he usually has had in outings such as THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, MEET JOHN DOE and GOING MY WAY. Still, his Molotov (he of the "Molotov Cocktail" fame)still makes a screen image for the old Bolshevik as an equivalent of New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia; you know, a guy who read the daily comic strips to everyone over the Radio during a newspaper strike.FURTHERMORE, THE SYRUPY treatment of all things that are Soviet is made even more sophomoric when contrasted with the treatment of the Nazi Germans; who are all (truthfully)patterned on the sadistic, brutal thugs that they were. A most interesting point/counter point is found in their portrayals of Molotov (Gene Lockhart) and the German Foreign Minister von Ribbentropp (Henry Daniell). We have Mr. Lockhart's sincere civil servant vs. Mr. Daniell's slimy, back-stabbing, treacherous Nazi Minister. (A real "see you next time" kind of a guy.)ALTHOUGH THE TWO don't meet in the movie, in reality they were responsible for the Molotov-von Ribbentropp Treaty of 1939. Usually referred to as their Non-Aggression Pact, this piece of international skulduggery not only made allies of two avowed enemy political philosophies; but also sealed Poland's fate as Russian forces invaded Poland from the east as partners of Hitler's minions in carving the 11 year old Polish Republic by moving up to their old pre World War I borders.THIS ALSO CLEARED the way for Joe Stalin to annex the 3 Baltic independent Republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; as well as the Soviet's invasion of Finland, which gave the Red Army more than they ever expected in their war.* ANOTHER OBVIOUS MARK of a Warner Brothers production was the presence of many members of what has been called, "Warners Stock Company". This included such familiar names and mainly faces such as: George Tobias, Helmut Dantine, Moroni Olson, Vladinir Sokoloff, Louis Jean Heidt, Frank Ferguson,Pat O'Malley,Virginia Christine, Gino Corrado,James Flavin, etc. We were looking for Alan Hale, Allen Jenkins, Frank McHugh and Jack Carson.ANOTHER POINT ABOUT the general look and feel of much of the film is almost that of one of those MGM Travelogues. The scenes along with the sappy, syrupy narrative makes one want to go to Russia right away; or at least duplicate their successes on our shores.AS A CLOSING POINT, we have been puzzled for many years over the way in which the House Committee on Un-American Activities has been vilified when it comes to their investigation of the Left Wing's attachment for and involvement with the Communist Party; but never criticized for its probing of movements such as the German-American Bund and Nazi Espionage from 1935 to our entering the War in 1941. Aren't both of these totalitarian forms of government a threat to freedom where ever they arise? NOTE * Nothing is said about Soviet treachery and the fact that they were allies with the Axis in carving up eastern Europe. Their unwarranted attack on Finland is omitted; which was complicated by Stalin's insistence that the Western Allies declare war on Finland. Also, all of those Eastern and Central European Governments which were in exile in London were left out of any return to their rightful places and Red Communist Puppet Governments were put in power.