# What’s a good “warts and all” subject matter for a movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 24, 2026, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-a-good-warts-and-all-subject-matter-for-a-movie/1030355 "2026-05-24T20:11:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 47
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2026, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-a-good-warts-and-all-subject-matter-for-a-movie/1030355/47 "2026-05-25T20:05:22Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > We really need a non-romanticized bio-pic about P.T. Barnum which features his purchase and exploitation of [Joice Heth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joice_Heth). This was the start of America’s adulation of conmen…and certainly not the end. She was paid a LOT of $$- > Historian [Eric Lott](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Lott) claimed Heth earned the impresario $1,500 a week, a princely sum in that era (equivalent to $47,000 in 2025).[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joice_Heth#cite_note-lott-9) > [@Moriarty](#): > > You could do Charles Lindbergh, the great aviator, and the Nazi sympathizer with the secret families. Families yes, and before the war Lindberg admired the gains in aviation Germany made, but he never stated any such sympathies. he also shared the intelligence he got from visiting and flying german planes with US- > **[Charles Lindbergh | Pre-war activities and politics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh#Pre-war_activities_and_politics)** > > In July 1936, shortly before the opening of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, American journalist William L. Shirer recorded in his diary: "The Lindberghs are here \[in Berlin\], and the Nazis, led by Göring, are making a great play for them." > This 1936 visit was the first of several that Lindbergh made at the request of the U.S. military establishment between 1936 and 1938, with the goal of evaluating German aviation. During this visit, the Lufthansa airline held a tea for the Lindberghs, and l... > There is disagreement on how accurate Lindbergh’s reports were, but Cole asserts that the consensus among British and American officials was that they were slightly exaggerated but badly needed.[[195]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh#cite_note-Cole_1974-200) [Arthur Krock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Krock), the chief of _[The New York Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times)_ 's Washington Bureau, wrote in 1939, “When the new flying fleet of the United States begins to take air, among those who will have been responsible for its size, its modernness, and its efficiency is Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh. Informed officials here, in touch with what Colonel Lindbergh has been doing for his country abroad, are authority for this statement, and for the further observation that criticism of any of his activities – in Germany or elsewhere – is as ignorant as it is unfair.”[[196]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh#cite_note-Duffy_2010_83-201) [General Henry H. Arnold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Henry_H._Arnold), the only U.S. Air Force general to hold five-star rank, wrote in his autobiography, “Nobody gave us much useful information about Hitler’s air force until Lindbergh came home in 1939.”[[197]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh#cite_note-202) Lindbergh also undertook a survey of aviation in the [Soviet Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union) in 1938.[[198]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh#cite_note-203) Lindy wholeheartedly supported the US once the war started. Yes, he was in the “America First” movement, but so were most Americans. > [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > That’s complicated. Lindbergh didn’t like Jewish people (as came out in his posthumously published diaries) but he spied on the Nazis for the U.S. government. Good points. > [@Moriarty](#): > > One aspect that I’d be sure to include would be how she tortured him with the cooking of Henrietta Nesbet, who served him bland and disgusting food. There was undoubtedly a certain amount of passive aggression going on there. Due to the fact that the President needed to be seen as following the same food as everyone esle got due to rationing- > The stringent measures were mostly due to the need for rationing during WWII. During this period, there was an emphasis on stretching food, which affected households across the nation, including the White House. > **[Hyde Park on Hudson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park_on_Hudson)** > > Hyde Park on Hudson is a 2012 historical drama film directed by Roger Michell. The film stars Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel West as King George VI, Olivia Colman as his wife Queen Elizabeth and Laura Linney as Margaret "Daisy" Suckley, a cousin and childhood friend of the President. It was based on Suckley's private journals and diaries, discovered after her death and fictionally dramatizes her close relationship with Roosevelt and the 1939 visit of King George VI and Queen Eliz... Is pretty much “warts and all”. > [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > There’s also the fact that, with very few exceptions, everyone has a darker side that they would rather not have presented to the public. I can think of only two offhand that don’t seem to conform to this: > > **Mr. Rogers** - he really was that nice, apparently > > **Jim Henson** - Tom Hanks also. But here’s my opinion- say you have a Great Person, known for many important acts, who gave selflessly to the public. However- they slept around or did something else the Judeo-Christian majority considers a sin - but it legal. I dont care. I dont care that FDR slept around, for example. (Since Bill Murray was in that film it was pretty good anyway) > [@Moriarty](#): > > Meanwhile, we could do a Dr Seuss story and include his horrible treatment of his wife, who he drove to suicide. Snopes disagrees- > **[Did Dr. Seuss Have Affair That Pushed His Wife to Suicide?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dr-seuss-affair-wife-suicide/)** > > A common rumor about the children's author's personal relationships has plenty of truth, but some facts are unknowable. > Some versions of this claim state Helen Palmer had cancer, but Snopes could not confirm this piece of her medical history. Nor, given that we could not find any statements from those directly involved, were we able to confirm whether Theodor Geisel started a romantic relationship with Dimond during Palmer’s illness, or whether the alleged affair directly contributed to Palmer’s death. > [@Stanislaus](#): > > Cromwell himself would be a good subject for an unflinching drama, there’s a lot going on with that guy. Good choice- Cromwell was an evil, violent, bigoted man. > [@Odesio](#): > > A movie about Gygax from around the creation of D&D to his expulsion in 1985 from the company he created would make for an interesting story. You don’t even have to care about D&D. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10621206/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10621206/) > [@griffin1977](#): > > There is the 2011 Leonardo De Caprio telling of the story. Its definitely not entirely positive whether or not it’s really “warts and all” I don’t recall. It covers his maybe or likely not gay relationship with Tolson. But clearly there was a “Bromance” there. Also Hoover was not a crossdresser. He was not a Good man, however. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-a-good-warts-and-all-subject-matter-for-a-movie/1030355)._