Before America's involvement in the Second World War, Hollywood's attitudes towards events in Europe were, to say the least, ambiguous
Greed (the fear of losing foreign markets), and the threat of backlash from powerful isolationist groups within the country meant that the films tended to avoid the controversial issues of fascism
Hollywood as a whole though there were a few dedicated anti-fascists prided itself on not taking sides
Two films claiming to be about the Spanish Civil War somehow managed to evade mentioning who the combatants were and what the fighting was about
'The Last Train From Madrid' is a conventional melodrama about the plight of a group of people waiting to board the last train out of a besieged Madrid
The war has no other function here than to provide the element of suspense
More serious is 'Blockade,'1938 directed by William Dieterle
The film stars Henry Fonda as a Spanish peasant who reluctantly takes arms to defend his country