Page "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh" Paragraph 41

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 movie studio 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.