At the same time, the film initially had its defenders. Herman Shumlin called the film "an instrument for understanding and friendship between the Allies." Senator Sheridan Downey read a letter from a United States Army sergeant serving in the Italian campaign into the Congressional Record noting that Nazi propaganda he had seen criticized the Soviet Union in similar terms to American critiques of the film. The House Committee on Un-American Activities would later cite Mission to Moscow as one of three examples of pro-Soviet films made by Hollywood, the other two being The North Star and Song of Russia. It's been called "unquestionably the most blatant piece of pro-Stalinist propaganda ever offered by the American mass media". In 1950, the film became an object of attention by members of Congress, who saw it as pro-Soviet propaganda. Davies was largely silent on his role in the film, though he did submit a letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947. Called to testify under oath before Congress, Jack L. Warner at first claimed that the film was made at the request of Davies, who with the approval of FDR had asked Warner Bros. to make the film (this version of the facts was confirmed by Davies' letter as well). He said: Warner later recanted this version, stating that Harry Warner first read Mission to Moscow and then contacted Davies to discuss movie rights. Mission to Moscow was one of hundreds of pre-1948 Warner Bros. movies sold for television screenings, but was never included in domestic syndication packages put together by its then-owner, United Artists. It had its U.S. TV debut on PBS in the 1970s and has been shown sporadically on Turner Classic Movies, featured in the January 2010 series "Shadows of Russia" and most recently broadcast on January 30, 2017. The film's ownership has returned to Warner Bros. via its purchase of Turner Entertainment and the title made its DVD debut in October, 2009 as part of the Warner Archive Collection. See also Walter Duranty Louis Fischer Lion Feuchtwanger References Bibliography Barmine, Alexander (1945) One Who Survived: The Life Story of a Russian Under the Soviets, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons; reprinted Read Books (2007). , . Bennett, Todd (2001) "Culture, Power, and Mission to Moscow: Film and Soviet-American Relations during World War II", The Journal of American History, Vol. 88, No. 2, pp. 489–518. Blahova, Jindriska. "A