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This article reexamines the politicization of the Hollywood industry in the 1930s and 1940s through the lens of networks and spaces of interaction. Through an analysis of the genesis of two films dealing with European subject matter, both released in 1939, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by William Dieterle and Balalaïka by Reinhold Schünzel, this article looks at the intersections between the spheres of European emigration in Hollywood, and those of the film industry more broadly. It demonstrates how, through these groups, various political, professional, and philanthropic circles became entangled, fostering the development of artistic and political strategies of expression in the service of discourse on the contemporary situation.