WHO WAS ON TRIAL IN AMERICAN TRAITOR?
An American citizen named Mildred Gilliars (played by Meadow Williams) was in Germany when World War II began, hoping to became a famous actress. Approached by radio program director Max Otto Koischwitz (Carsten Norgaard) one day in 1941, he presents her with an extraordinary opportunity—work as a high-profile radio personality for Josef Göbbels (Thomas Kretschmann), broadcasting and singing on radio. Known as Axis Sally, her scripted words and songs are indeed heard around the world. She is forced to make comments that might discourage American soldiers from fighting Nazi Germany. The form of the force, demonstrated in the film American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally, consists of intimidating assaults, death threat, and rape. She spends her off-microphone life with Max, displaying intense love until his death in 1944 and then becomes more lackluster in her role. After the war, Mildred changes her name, and hopes that her past will not catch up with her. But she is arrested in Berlin after the war, put on trial in Washington in 1949, and her fate is then in the hands of a jury and a scrappy defense attorney, James J. Laughlin (Al Pacino), and co-counsel William Owen (Swen Temmel), who is able to get her to tell her story.
Directed by Michael Polish, much of the film is based on the book Axis Sally Confidential written by her defense attorney and his son, William and Vance Owen. To feign authenticity, the film is mostly in black and white, with major characters in some color, though the effect is to make the story rather painful to absorb. The beginning establishes the situation in which Mildred Gilliars finds herself trapped. Later, as Owen makes bumbling arguments to the jury while interviewing witnesses, flashbacks validate his case. His basic argument is that the government has sought to prosecute Axis Sally, not Mildred Gilliars, whose behavior was under extreme duress. He even points out that her interviews of captured American soldiers on the radio reassured their families that they were not in danger and otherwise did no harm. Owen provides a First Amendment argument that the case against his client is based only on songs sung and words spoken, which she had a right to express. Although the jury presents Not Guilty verdicts to the first seven charges in the case, the “free speech” argument fails, and she is convicted of spreading propaganda that gives aid and comfort to the enemy. Titles at the end indicate that she was released after 12 years of a 10- to 30-year sentence, became a schoolteacher, and died in Ohio during 1988. Owen, who talks while credits are running, is praised in titles at the end for his subsequent legal career.
American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally fulfills the Political Film Society’s search for films that bring new facts to light on the screen and thus has been nominated for best film exposé of 2021. Informing filmviewers of her mistreatment at the hands of Nazis warrants a nomination as well for best film on human rights. MH