Review – Mission to Moscow

This is one of the strangest movies I’ve ever seen. Actually, the movie itself isn’t all that odd. It’s a fairly standard World War Two era propaganda picture. The astounding thing is that it’s about how great Stalin’s Soviet Union was. Of course they’re working an agenda here, as the U.S. government needed public support for the anti-Hitler alliance with a country that everyone had been told – not without justification – was a totalitarian regime. The picture tells the story of Ambassador Joseph E. Davies (Walter Huston) and his efforts to drum up support for American-Soviet alliances. In retrospect a lot of the story is stupid, such as the scene in which Davies tells Stalin directly, “I believe, sir, that history will record you as a great builder for the benefit of mankind.” Still, given the political climate of the time, perhaps some of the lies and other foolishness can be understood if not excused. Mildly amusing