The Investigator
The Investigator concerns a United States Senator, who is never explicitly identified as Joseph McCarthy, but who shares McCarthy’s nasally whine and who uses such McCarthy-esque sayings as "Your uncooperative attitude can only cast the gravest doubts on your own loyalty." This senator dies in an airplane crash and finds himself at the gates of Heaven, where a tribunal must decide whether he is worthy of heaven or hell. There, he meets Cotton Mather of the Salem Witch Trials, Tomas de Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition, and other famous inquisitors from history, who, despite their reputations as shrewd and conniving characters, call themselves "mere untutored novices" compared to the Senator. As it turns out, they’ve been looking for someone to commandeer the tribunal and bring "the latest inquisitorial techniques" to it, and they see that the Senator is the perfect man for the job.
The Senator easily takes control of the committee, and soon realizes that a great many individuals in heaven could potentially be subversives from "down there." He soon calls numerous historical figures to the stand, including Thomas Jefferson, Socrates, John Milton, and Martin Luther. When they testify, they all give oddly relevant quotations of theirs, such as when Voltaire states that "liberty of thought is the life of the soul." Completely disregarding their statements regarding freedom and rights, the Senator sends them all to Hell, claiming that "security is the paramount issue." When trying to call Karl Marx to the stand, the Senator accidentally calls other individuals named "Karl Marx" instead of the Karl Marx; as a result, the Senator orders that all those in Heaven with the name Karl Marx be banished to Hell. The Senator's actions soon create a panic of suspicion in Heaven where everyone is a potential subversive: Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner agree to drop Chopin from their quartet because of suspicion derived from his "Revolutionary Étude." Chopin's replacement, a "non-controversial" cipher named Otto Schmenk, eventually replaces other famous "subversives" in literary and musical pursuits, eventually joining them in banishment as well.
Finally, after sending dozens of "subversives" to hell, the Senator has run out of ideas. "Can’t we jazz the hearing up with a few names?" he asks an assistant; "I don’t want them to think we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel." Then Satan pays a call on the Senator, demanding that his investigations cease, because the influence of those he's sent to his domain are changing it too much; (the real) Karl Marx, for example, is distributing pamphlets declaring, "Workers of the Underworld, unite! You have nowhere to go but up!" Satan claims the Senator is "bungling" his job, insisting there are more subtle ways to handle his committee and the deportations. But the Senator has become a demagogue, valuing his position (and absolute power) above all else. Finally, claiming that "there is no one so high as to be immune from investigation," he’s found the name he’s looking for—God Himself, whom the characters in the show refer to as "The Chief." Even Mather and Torquemada try to discourage him now, but the Senator refuses to listen. He soon rises to an insane scream, crying "I AM THE CHIEF!" as God suddenly appears before him, furiously banishing him to Hell (with the proper balance between Heaven and Hell eventually restored). However, the Senator is so vile and abhorrent that Satan will not even let him enter, so he is returned to earth, still stammering, "I am the chief...I am the chief..."
In a brief epilogue, a doctor explains to one of the Senator's acquaintances, Mr. Garson, that despite having lived through the plane crash (discovered at the crash site as the only survivor), it somehow affected his mind—hence his strange mutterings—and wonders if he'll ever regain his sanity. Mr. Garson declares, at the doctor's disbelief of the Senator emerging virtually unscathed after being found at the foot of the mountain where the plane crashed, "It was an act of God!"
christian film