Editing Charlie Chaplin (section)

====''Monsieur Verdoux'' and communist accusations====
[[File:Monsieur Verdoux poster.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[Monsieur Verdoux]]'' (1947), a dark comedy about a serial killer, marked a significant departure for Chaplin.]]

Chaplin claimed that the Barry trials had "crippled [his] creativeness", and it was some time before he began working again.{{sfn|Chaplin|p=426}} In April 1946, he finally began filming a project that had been in development since 1942.{{sfn|Robinson|p=520}} ''[[Monsieur Verdoux]]'' was a [[black comedy]], the story of a French bank clerk, Verdoux (Chaplin), who loses his job and begins marrying and murdering wealthy widows to support his family. Chaplin's inspiration for the project came from [[Orson Welles]], who wanted him to star in a film about the French serial killer [[Henri Désiré Landru]]. Chaplin decided that the concept would "make a wonderful comedy",{{sfn|Chaplin|p=412}} and paid Welles $5,000{{efn|{{Inflation|US|5000|1942|fmt=eq|r=-3}}}} for the idea.{{sfn|Robinson|pp=519–520}}

Chaplin again vocalised his political views in ''Monsieur Verdoux'', criticising [[capitalism]] and arguing that the world encourages mass killing through wars and [[Weapon of mass destruction|weapons of mass destruction]].{{sfnm|1a1=Louvish|1p=304|2a1=Sbardellati and Shaw|2p=501}} Because of this, the film met with controversy when it was released in April 1947;{{sfnm|1a1=Louvish|1pp=296–297|2a1=Robinson|2pp=538–543|3a1=Larcher|3p=77}} Chaplin was booed at the premiere, and there were calls for a boycott.{{sfnm|1a1=Louvish|1pp=296–297|2a1=Sbardellati and Shaw|2p=503}} ''Monsieur Verdoux'' was the first Chaplin release that failed both critically and commercially in the United States.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=235–245, 250}} It was more successful abroad,{{sfn|Maland|1989|p=250}} and Chaplin's screenplay was nominated at the [[20th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]].{{sfn|Louvish|p=297}} He was proud of the film, writing in his autobiography, "''Monsieur Verdoux'' is the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made."{{sfn|Chaplin|p=444}}

The negative reaction to ''Monsieur Verdoux'' was largely the result of changes in Chaplin's public image.{{sfn|Maland|1989|p=251}} Along with the damage of the Joan Barry scandal, he was publicly accused of being a [[communist]].{{sfnm|1a1=Robinson|1pp=538–539|2a1=Friedrich|2p=287}} His political activity had heightened during World War II, when he campaigned for the opening of a Second Front to help the [[Soviet Union]] and supported various Soviet–American friendship groups.{{sfn|Maland|1989|p=253}} He was also friendly with several suspected communists, and attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in Los Angeles.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=221–226, 253–254}} In the political climate of 1940s America, such activities meant Chaplin was considered, as Larcher writes, "dangerously [[progressivism|progressive]] and amoral".{{sfnm|1a1=Larcher|1p=75|2a1=Sbardellati and Shaw|2p=506|3a1=Louvish|3p=xiii}} The FBI wanted him out of the country,{{sfn|Sbardellati|p=152}} and launched an official investigation in early 1947.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=265–266}}{{efn|Chaplin had already attracted the attention of the FBI long before the 1940s, the first mention of him in their files being from 1922. J. Edgar Hoover first requested that a Security Index Card be filed for Chaplin in September 1946, but the Los Angeles office was slow to react and only began active investigation the next spring.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=265–266}} The FBI also requested and received help from [[MI5]], particularly on investigating the false claims that Chaplin had not been born in England but in France or Eastern Europe, and that his real name was Israel Thornstein. MI5 found no evidence of Chaplin being involved in the Communist Party.<ref>{{cite news|last=Norton-Taylor |first=Richard |date=17 February 2012 |title=MI5 Spied on Charlie Chaplin after the FBI Asked for Help to Banish Him from US |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/feb/17/mi5-spied-on-charlie-chaplin |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=17 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702232703/http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/nov/05/charlie-chaplin-ebay-reel-tin |archive-date=2 July 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?532431-1/qa-scott-eyman ''Q&A'' interview with Scott Eyman on ''Charlie Chaplin vs. America'', May 10, 2024], [[C-SPAN]]}} 
Chaplin denied being a communist, instead calling himself a "peacemonger",{{sfnm|1a1=Louvish|1pp=xiv, 310|2a1=Chaplin|2p=458|3a1=Maland|3y=1989|3p=238}} but felt the government's effort to suppress the ideology was an unacceptable infringement of [[civil liberties]].{{sfn|Robinson|p=544}} Unwilling to be quiet about the issue, he openly protested against the trials of [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]] members and the activities of the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=255–256}} Chaplin received a [[subpoena]] to appear before HUAC but was not called to testify.{{sfnm|1a1=Friedrich|1p=286|2a1=Maland|2y=1989|2p=261}} As his activities were widely reported in the press, and [[Cold War]] fears grew, questions were raised over his failure to take American citizenship.{{sfnm|1a1=Larcher|1p=80|2a1=Sbardellati and Shaw|2p=510|3a1=Louvish|3p=xiii|4a1=Robinson|4p=545}} Calls were made for him to be deported; in one extreme and widely published example, Representative [[John E. Rankin]], who helped establish HUAC, told [[United States Congress|Congress]] in June 1947: "[Chaplin's] very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America. [If he is deported]{{spaces}}... his loathsome pictures can be kept from before the eyes of the American youth. He should be deported and gotten rid of at once."{{sfn|Robinson|p=545}}

In 2003, declassified British archives belonging to the [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|British Foreign Office]] revealed that author and social critic [[George Orwell]] secretly accused Chaplin of being a secret communist and a friend of the USSR<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last=Ash |first=Timothy Garton |author-link=Timothy Garton Ash |title=Orwell's List |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2003/09/25/orwells-list/ |work=The New York Review |date=25 September 2003 |access-date=20 January 2021}}</ref> in the 1949 [[Orwell's list]] document. Chaplin's name was one of 35 that Orwell gave to the [[Information Research Department|Information Research Department (IRD)]], a secret British Cold War propaganda department which worked closely with the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]].<ref name=":0" /> Chaplin was not the only actor in America whom Orwell accused of being a secret communist.<ref name=":0" />