Charlie Chaplin, the English comic actor, filmmaker and composer was one of the biggest stars of the silent film era. Appearing in short films just as the Great War was getting started, he would be one of the world's biggest stars by the time it ended. In the ensuing decades he starred in numerous popular feature lengths including The Kid (1921) and The Gold Rush (1925). His relationship with the world's major conflicts became more direct with the release of The Great Dictator (1940), a direct parody of Adolf Hitler right as World War II was getting into full swing. .
Meanwhile, Chaplin's huge level of popularity and lifestyle began attracting suspicion in an increasingly paranoid United States of America. Right-wingers and moralists, fighting a war of their own against Communism suspected Chaplin was associated with this movement due to the messages in his films and some of his personal friendships. Similarly, Chaplin had been vocal in calling for a second front to be opened in order to support the Soviet Union during World War II. While this was most likely practical thinking on his part, it helped to supply ammunition to this looking to build a case against him in the aftermath of the war.
In 1948 he was publicly decried for his defense of known-Marxist Hanns Eisler, a German composer, who was in the process of being deported by the United States. Years later, Chaplin would be denied a renewed re-entry visa to the United States. While not entirely unexpected at the time, Chaplin still considered it to be an insult and would refuse to return to the United States to live for the rest of his days. It was in the context of these events – and the Cold War – that the film A King in New York was produced in London in 1956. This paper will focus on this film and the way in which the Cold War had framed its production – both in terms of Chaplin's personal life and the themes of the film itself.
