The Forty Days of Musa Dagh - Objections and Obstructions of Film Adaptations

Objections and Obstructions of Film Adaptations

Even before The Forty Days of Musa Dagh had been published in English translation, Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) had secured the film rights from Werfel’s publisher, Paul Zsolnay Verlag and had the novel translated for the studio’s scriptwriters. Despite reservations on the part of the studio’s legal counsel, who felt such a film would offend the Turkish government, MGM started preproduction work in 1934 and tentatively cast a rising young star named Clark Gable to play Gabriel Bagradian. When reports surfaced in the Hollywood press about the film late in 1934, Turkey’s ambassador to the United States, Mehmed Münir Ertegün, was ordered by his government to prevent it from being made. As the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was intent on suppressing any mention of the Armenian Genocide, whether it was within its own borders or not. Ertegün turned to the U.S. State Department and told them that he “earnestly hoped that would desist from presenting any such picture, which would give a distorted version of the alleged massacres.” The State Department tried to assure Ertegün that the film would not include any material that would offend Turkey, but Ertegün remained adamant. The State Department attempted to mollify the Turkish government by presenting it with the finalized script, although this did not satisfy it either. The film's scriptwriters offered several water-downed versions but Turkey still refused to budge.

MGM’s production chief was astonished by this level of interference by a foreign power declaring, "To hell with the Turks, I'm going to make the picture anyway." The fact that MGM was moving forward with the production further enraged Turkey. Speaking to an MGM official, Ertegün threatened that "If the movie is made, Turkey will launch a worldwide campaign against it. It rekindles the Armenian Question. The Armenian Question is settled." Ertegün’s threats were soon being echoed across the Turkish press. In a September 3, 1935, editorial colored with anti-Semitic overtones, the Istanbul Turkish-language daily Haber opined:

We will have to take our own steps in case the Jewish people fail to bring the Jewish company (MGM) to reason...The Forty Days of Musa Dagh presents the Turco-Armenian struggle during the World War in a light hostile to the Turks. Its author is a Jew. This means that MGM, which is also a Jewish firm, utilizes for one of its films a work by one of its companions...Declare a boycott against pictures by MGM...Jewish firms which maintain commercial relations with our country will also suffer if they fail to stop this hostile propaganda.

In the face of this pressure, Louis B. Mayer of MGM, conceded to Turkish demands and the film was scrapped. Michael Bobelian, a lawyer and a journalist, states that the "Musa Dagh incident is critical in understanding the evolution of Turkey’s campaign of denying the crimes committed by the Young Turks. . . . The standoff with MGM revealed that Turkey would pressure foreign governments to go along with its policy of denial." Another movie version was mentioned in the 1967 sales film Lionpower from MGM as being slated for production in 1968–1969 but nothing came of this version either.

In the 1970s MGM sold its rights to The Forty Days of Musa Dagh and after several abortive attempts, the novel was finally turned into a movie in 1982, directed by Sarky Mouradian with screenplay by Alex Hakobian, but it was a low-budget, low-profile production that seriously abridged the original. In 2006, Sylvester Stallone expressed his desire to direct a film about Musa Dagh, according to Professor Savaş Eğilmez of Atatürk University. However, an e-mail campaign sponsored by the Foundation for the Struggle Against Baseless Allegations of Genocide (ASİMED) pressured Stallone into not proceeding with the film. In early 2009, reports surfaced that actor Mel Gibson was also considering in directing a documentary and appearing in the adaptation of Werfel's novel but was dissuaded after receiving 3,000 e-mails sent by a Turkish pressure group.