Eisenstein spent a large amount of time with Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin recommended that Eisenstein meet American socialist author Upton Sinclair who Chaplin thought might help Eisenstein. Sinclair's works had been accepted by and were widely read in the Soviet Union, and were known to Eisenstein. The two liked each other's work. Between the end of October 1930, and Thanksgiving of that year, Sinclair had gotten an extension of Eisenstein's leave from the Soviet Union. He also received permission for Eisenstein to travel to Mexico to make a movie to be produced by Sinclair and his wife, Mary Craig Kimbrough Sinclair. They joined with three other investors to make the Mexican Film Trust.
On November 24, Eisenstein signed a contract with the Trust. The deal was "upon the basis of Eisenstein's desire to be free to direct the making of a picture according to his own ideas of what a Mexican picture should be, and in full faith in Eisenstein's artistic integrity." The contract also said that the movie would be "non-political." The money first came from Mrs. Sinclair and would be "not less than Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars." The schedule for making the movie would be "a period of from three to four months,". The contract also said that "Eisenstein...agrees that all pictures made or directed by him in Mexico, all negative film and positive prints, and all story and ideas embodied in said Mexican picture, will be the property of Mrs. Sinclair..." An addition to the contract, dated December 1, allowed that the "Soviet Government may have the [finished] movie free for showing inside the U.S.S.R." Reportedly, it was verbally decided that the movie was expected to be an hour long.
By December 4, 1930, Eisenstein was on his way to Mexico by train. He was joined by Alexandrov and Tisse. Later he came up with a short summary of the six-part movie which would come. This would be the final plan Eisenstein would settle on for his project. The title for the project, "¡Que viva México!", was decided on some time later. While in Mexico, Eisenstein mixed socially with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Eisenstein liked these artists and Mexican culture in general. They inspired Eisenstein to call his movies, "moving frescoes."
After a long time away from the Soviet Union, Stalin sent a telegram saying he was worried that Eisenstein had become a deserter. Eisenstein blamed Mary Sinclair's younger brother, Hunter Kimbrough, for the film's problems. Kimbrough had been sent along to act as a line producer on the movie. Eisenstein hoped to pressure the Sinclairs to stop Stalin, so Eisenstein could finish the movie in his own way.
The upset Sinclair shut down production. He ordered Kimbrough to return to the United States with the remaining movie footage. The three Soviets came as well to see what they could do with the movie already shot. For the unfinished filming of the "novel" of Soldadera, Eisenstein had gotten 500 soldiers, 10,000 guns, and 50 cannons from the Mexican Army. This was lost due to Sinclair's canceling of production.
When Eisenstein arrived at the American border, a customs search of his trunk revealed sketches and drawings of Jesus along with other material of a pornographic nature. Eisenstein's re-entry visa had expired, and Sinclair's contacts in Washington were unable to secure him an additional extension. Eisenstein, Alexandrov and Tisse were, after a month's stay at the U.S.-Mexico border outside Laredo, Texas, allowed a 30-day "pass" to get from Texas to New York. From there, they would be allowed to leave for Moscow. Kimbrough returned to Los Angeles with the remaining movie.
Eisenstein toured the American South, on his way to New York. In mid-1932, the Sinclairs were able to get the services of Sol Lesser. Lesser had just opened his own distribution office in New York, Principal Distributing Corp.. Lesser agreed to supervise post-production work on the miles of negative — at the Sinclairs' expense — and distribute any finished product. Two short movies and a short subject — "Thunder Over Mexico" based on the "Maguey" footage, "Eisenstein in Mexico", and "Death Day" respectively — were completed and released in the United States between the autumn of 1933 and early 1934.
Eisenstein never saw any of the Sinclair-Lesser movies, nor a later effort by his first biographer, Marie Seton, called "Time In The Sun." He would publicly say that he had lost all interest in the project.
Eisenstein's trip to the west made the Soviet movie business look at him with a suspicion that would never completely go away. He apparently spent some time in a mental hospital in Kislovodsk in July 1933. This was possibly a result of depression because he realized that he would never be allowed to edit the Mexican footage which was turned over by Sinclair to Hollywood editors.
He was then given a teaching job with the movie school GIK (now Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography) where he had taught before. In 1933 and 1934 he was in charge of writing the education plan. Eisenstein married filmmaker and writer Pera Atasheva (1900–65) in 1934. They remained married until his death in 1948. There is some question about his sexuality.
In 1935, he began another project, "Bezhin Meadow". It appears the movie had many of the same problems as "Que Viva Mexico". Eisenstein decided to movie two versions of the plot. One was for adult viewers and one was for children. He failed to set a clear shooting schedule. He also used a lot of film which meant a lot of costs and missed deadlines. The movie ran into problems because it was not fully supported by its American financers.
The thing that may have saved Eisenstein's career at this point was that Stalin ended up saying that the "Bezhin Meadow" problems, along with several other problems facing the business, had less to do with Eisenstein's approach to filmmaking as with the executives who were supposed to have been watching him. In the end, this made Boris Shumyatsky, "executive producer" of Soviet movies since 1932 to blame. In early 1938, he was denounced, arrested, tried and convicted as a traitor, and shot. (The production executive at movie studio Mosfilm, where Meadow was being made, was also replaced, but without more executions).
Eisenstein was then able to impress Stalin again for "one more chance", and he chose, from two offerings, the job of a movie of "Alexander Nevsky," with music composed by Sergei Prokofiev. This time, however, he was also given a co-writer, Pyotr Pavlenko, to bring in a completed script. He had professional actors to play the roles. He also had an assistant director, Dmitri Vasilyev, to make the filming faster.
The result was a movie critically received by both the Soviets and in the West. He won the Order of Lenin and the Stalin Prize. It was an obvious allegory and hard warning against the growing forces of Nazi Germany. This was started, completed, and put in theatres all within 1938. It was Eisenstein's first movie in nearly a decade. It also his first movie with sound.
But, within months of its release, Stalin entered into his agreement with Hitler. "Nevsky" was quickly pulled from distribution. Eisenstein returned to teaching. He was assigned to direct Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre" at the Bolshoi Theatre. Eisenstein had to wait until Hitler's sent German troops across the Soviet border in a fatal first strike, to see "Nevsky" receive wide distribution and real international success.
With the war coming to Moscow, Eisenstein was one of many filmmakers evacuated to Alma-Ata. There is where he first considered the idea of making a movie about Czar Ivan IV. Eisenstein wrote letters to Prokofiev from Alma-Ata. Prokofiev joined him there in 1942. Prokofiev composed the score for Eisenstein's movie. Eisenstein designed sets for an opera version of "War and Peace" that Prokofiev was creating.