Chayefsky Rebukes Obama

By Jack Engelhard

Dramatist and novelist Paddy Chayefsky (who died in 1981) wrote some terrific plays and novels. He wrote the screenplay for the (underrated) movie “The Americanization of Emily,” from the novel by William Bradford Huie. It’s here that Chayefsky’s brilliance as a writer shines brightly – in his defense of America.

America needs defending, now more than ever, during this, the Europeanization of our president, Barack Obama.

There’s no need to unravel the entire plot of “The Americanization of Emily” except to note that it takes plan in London at the onset of D-Day. James Garner plays Lt. Cmdr. Charles Edward Madison. He falls in love with British war widow Emily Barham, played by Julie Andrews. This is what he says:

“You America haters bore me to tears, Miss Barham. I’ve dealt with Europeans all my life. I know all about us parvenus from the States who come over here and race around your old Cathedral towns with our cameras and Coca-cola bottles…Brawl in your pubs, paw at your women, and act like we own the world.

“We over-tip, we talk too loud, we think we can buy anything with a Hershey bar. I’ve had Germans and Italians tell me how politically ingenuous we are – and perhaps so.

“But we haven’t managed a Hitler or a Mussolini yet.

“I’ve had Frenchmen call me a savage because I took half an hour for lunch. Hell, Miss Barham, the only reason the French take two hours for lunch is because the service is lousy. The most tedious lot are you British. We crass Americans didn’t introduce war to your little Island.

“This war, Miss, Barham, to which we Americans are so insensitive, is the result of 2,000 years of European greed, barbarism, superstition, and stupidity.

“Don’t blame it on our Coca-cola bottles. Europe was going brothel long before we came to town.”

Someone may want to deliver these words to the White House – from a movie released in 1964.

Novelist Jack Engelhard is the author of “Indecent Proposal” and “The Bathsheba Deadline.” His latest novel “The Girls of Cincinnati” is available in paperback on Amazon. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com