Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided

Bestselling Hollywood biographer & film historian Scott Eyman tells the story of Charlie Chaplin’s fall from grace. In the aftermath of World War Two, Chaplin was criticized for being politically liberal & internationalist in outlook. He had never become a US citizen, something that would be held against him as xenophobia set in when the postwar Red Scare took hold. 

Politics aside, Chaplin had another problem: his sexual interest in young women. He had been married three times & had had numerous affairs. In the 1940s, he was the subject of a paternity suit, which he lost, despite blood tests that proved he was not the father. His sexuality became a convenient way for those who opposed his politics to condemn him. Refused permission to return to the US from a trip abroad, he settled in Switzerland, & made his last two films in London 

In Charlie Chaplin vs. America, bestselling author Scott Eyman explores the life & times of the movie genius who brought us such masterpieces as City Lights & Modern Times. This is a perceptive, insightful portrait of Chaplin & of an America consumed by political turmoil.

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Eyman never thought he’d ever write about Chaplin (“I have four rows of books about Chaplin. I thought, what could I write about him that hasn’t been covered?”), but it turns out that this 10-year period has gotten scant attention in previous biographies, despite its being pivotal to Chaplin’s life & illustrative of certain negative tendencies in American politics & media. – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle