“If it weren’t for Martha, it wouldn’t be Watergate,” Richard Nixon once said.
He meant she was in pain in the ass, distracting her attorney general during a crisis time and otherwise obstructing. But his words were truer than he knew.
“The Martha Mitchell Effect” aims to put back the loudest and most impetuous cabinet wife where she belongs – right at the center of American history. Streaming now on Netflix, the documentary takes a woman accused of being drunk and delusional and shows us an imploding presidency through her eyes.
For directors Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy, it’s more than a commercial or other tribute conveniently timed to mark the 50th anniversary of the burglaries at the Watergate hotel. They order the proof that was there the whole time if anyone cared to listen. And in 40 minutes of archival footage, they show that politics is always personal.
“It’s obviously a very current story. It has a lot of parallels to today and corruption at the highest level, “Alvergue said.” But, basically, it’s also a love story. “
This interview was edited and condensed. For more, listen to our Political Theater Podcast.
Q: I have a bookshelf of Watergate-related titles, and it’s mostly full of men. Why did people forget about Martha Mitchell?
AA: Martha Mitchell was a cabinet wife in Nixon’s first management. She was married to John Mitchell, who was Nixon’s attorney general and some would say his deputy commander. She was an outsider to Washington society; she came from Arkansas; and she did not quite agree — she was too loud and impetuous for Washington women’s society, and she was not taken seriously by men.
But she was taken seriously by the press, or at least she was quite friendly with them. It’s hard to understand today how popular she was. No one can call a cabinet wife, I think now in the management of Biden. But surveys done at the time showed she was just as popular as Jackie O. She really became a well-known name.
Q: At first she was a true believer in Nixon. But when she noticed that something fishy was happening with Watergate, she went straight to the press, as she liked to do. She said the FBI tried to silence her by taking her hostage.
AA: She went from being some kind of cabinet wife to being fired and discounted by the Nixon management, and later ultimately by the press, as someone who was sick and someone who was an alcoholic and a pill. She became a joke, unfortunately – until the end, when she did have a short honeymoon, when people realized she was telling the truth all the time.
D: People called her delusional, but it turns out she was right. Psychologists have even named a phenomenon after her, the one you borrowed for your film title. After all that, how do you reconstruct her story?
DM: We knew from the beginning that we wanted this to be archived. We wanted it to be immersed in that time period, and we wanted it to be in Martha’s voice as much as possible.
So we researched at the Nixon library in Yorba Linda, California. That was our main source of images, and we had an amazing archivist who helped us there, Ryan Pettigrew. Both Anne and I went out there on separate trips, pre-pandemic, and really dug up the materials and found treasure.
And then, of course, is all the Super 8 footage that H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman filmed, which is really nice and amazing to have access to.
Q: We still see archival documentaries coming out about the Nixon era in part because everyone has always recorded each other, secretly or not.
AA: It’s important to remember that Nixon’s Cabinet was quite young, and they filmed each other. They really tend to reveal home movies, and they were so happy and so excited to be there. Telling Nixon’s side of the story, we had all of that great observational footage, but Martha’s was a little harder because we had to rely on the news footage.
Q: Your release date is tied to the 50th anniversary this month of the arrests at the Watergate hotel. But it’s also scary to watch this as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 uprising holds its televised hearings.
AA: We keep thinking, “Oh, this is happening, and there’s this parallel and this parallel.” It’s windy. When you look back at Watergate and what Nixon and his men did, it feels like child’s play by comparison. I don’t think that diminishes the size of Watergate at the time. It felt like Watergate was the first time the public had really started to question the presidency, and we’re still going through it, only on a higher level.
Q: I don’t like to compare projects, but Starz has this new limited series “Gaslit,” where a certain famous movie star plays Martha Mitchell. How do you compete with Julia Roberts?
AA: It’s fun for us to watch it because we see a fictional version playing in scenes that we couldn’t visualize just because we didn’t have the archive images. However, it is much more about John Dean and G. Gordon Liddy than Martha Mitchell.
DM: It explodes on many other tangents besides Martha, and our homes in it. When you see the real Martha, there is no one who can really portray her.
Q: Martha Mitchell died just a few years after Nixon’s resignation, and I can’t help but think that played into some of the historical neglect of her voice. But it was also about power and who dominates the story. What else can we learn from it?
AA: It’s obviously a very current story. It has many parallels to today and corruption at the highest level. But, basically, it’s also a love story and a love triangle, with Nixon and Martha as if competing for John Mitchell’s attention.
And I think that was the motivation for Martha to speak out – not just because she wanted to tell the truth and she felt she was being slandered, but because she had information and wanted to protect John. She predicted he would take the fall for Nixon, and whether or not he knew it at the time, he finally chose Nixon, and he paid a price. I think it’s important to understand the personal consequence of these bigger scandals.
Who was the whistleblower in Watergate?
| Mark Felt | |
|---|---|
| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Clyde Tolson |
| Succeeded by | James B. Adams |
| Personal details |
Who revealed the quiz of the Watergate scandal? Who were the two reporters in the Watergate story for the Washington Post? -Bob Woodward.
Who were the reporters who exposed Watergate?
While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal. Those scandals led to many government investigations and the final resignation of President Richard Nixon.
What was John Mitchell convicted of?
Mitchell was sentenced Feb. On the same subject : Season 6 of Outlander will not be coming to Netflix in July 2022. 21 to two-and-a-half to eight years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in and hiding, which he dubbed the “White House horrors.”
Can I watch Gaslit on prime?
Watch Gaslit Season 1 | Main Video.
Where can I watch a Gaslit movie? You can stream Gaslit and other Starz content on your computer via the Starz website, or on any mobile phone via the Starz app. The app can be downloaded through the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Amazon. The Starz app is also available for Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast and Roku.
Is Gaslit only on Starz?
If you’ve already cut the string, you can watch Gaslit at Starz with its own streaming program or with several live TV streaming services, including Sling TV, Fubo TV, Hulu With Live TV, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream. Of these options, we recommend Sling and FuboTV, two of the best streaming services on the market.
Is Gaslit on Netflix streaming?
The streamer won’t have every series ready to stream for subscribers at all times, and may be less than ideal for some to find out that certain titles aren’t among the many star copies. Unfortunately, Gaslit isn’t available on Netflix, and it’s unclear if this will ever change at this point.
Where can I watch Gaslit UK?
British fans on the edge of your chair drama won’t have to wait to watch the highly anticipated Gaslit. Episodes arrived live on StarzPlay on Sunday, April 24, where they will land from around 5 GMT weekly. The StarzPlay UK channel is available via Amazon Channels for £ 5.99 a month after a 1-week free trial.
On which TV channel is Gaslit?
Where can I watch the film Gaslit?
How to Watch Gaslit Online: Where to Stream
- Fly Gaslit on Starz. The simplest way to watch Gaslit online is to get a Starz subscription. …
- Fly Gaslit on Hulu. You can also watch Gaslit online using your Hulu subscription by adding Starz to your current Hulu plan. …
- Flugu Gaslit on Amazon Prime Video.
Is Gaslit on Sky?
Gaslit – Watch season 1 | Heavenly Show.
Is Gaslit a limited series?
Gaslit is a limited series about Starz, examining the Watergate scandal with an eclectic group of characters, sharp dialogue and interesting drama.
How many episodes of Gaslit will there be? How Many Episodes Will Gaslit Season 1 Have? Gaslit Season 1 was commissioned with an 8 episode order. With that in mind, this is the finale now!
How many shows does Gaslit have?
Gaslit Season 1 was commissioned with a 10 episode order. With that in mind, we have 5 more episodes after this one.
Is Gaslit a series or a movie?
As a limited series, Gaslit will only run for eight episodes, and will likely not have a second season.
