A King in New York (1957) is directed by and starring Charles Chaplin in his last leading role. The film was not officially released in America until the early 1970s. This happened because the film appeared to be brilliant satire of political and social aspects of the United States’ development in the fifties. That time America suffered from McCarthyism ideas: the country was in the throes of anti-communist suspicion.
The fear of the spread of communist ideas throughout the United States caused the accusation of thousands of American communists or communist sympathizers. Government employees (especially in entertainment industry), union activists, educators and people of other professions were subjected to aggressive investigations that resulted in loss of jobs, ruination of their careers and imprisonment. Chaplin was one of those accused of anti-American activities. Being hunted by powerful reactionary groups, he left America in 1952 and returned to it in 1972 to receive an Honorary Oscar.
A King in New York focuses on McCarthyism witch hunts and violations of civil liberties (paraphrasing Rupert Macabee, an average American was sick and tired of asking whether he is this, if he is that), American commercialism, wide-screen movies, television, the atomic bomb, plastic surgery (the moment when Chaplin tries not to laugh to save his plastic surgery cannot but fascinate the viewer), and pop music. In general, every scene of the film shows that the director/actor felt stabbed in his heart for what the American government had done to him.
I believe Chaplin’s criticism can be applicable to the modern America because of at least one reason: the witch hunt did not stop, it has just slightly transformed now – the “communists” have been replaced by the “terrorists”. Until this “terrorist” hunt persists with all ensuing violations of human liberties Chaplin’s movie will not lose its popularity among the viewers.