'Un-American' Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era

by Frank Krutnik (Editor), Steve Neale (Editor), Brian Neve (Editor)

The concept of “un-Americanism,” so vital to the HUAC crusade of the 1940s and 1950s, was resoundingly revived in the emotional rhetoric that followed the September 11th terrorist attacks. Today’s political and cultural climate makes it more crucial than ever to come to terms with the consequences of this earlier period of repression and with the contested claims of Americanism that it generated.             “Un-American” Hollywood   reopens the intense critical debate on the blacklist era and on the aesthetic and political work of the Hollywood Left. In a series of fresh case studies focusing on contexts of production and reception, the contributors offer exciting and original perspectives on the role of progressive politics within a capitalist media industry.             Original essays scrutinize the work of individual practitioners, such as Robert Rossen, Joseph Losey, Jules Dassin, and Edward Dmytryk, and examine key films, including The Robe, Christ in Concrete, The House I Live In, The Lawless, The Naked City, The Prowler, Body and Soul, and FTA .

Genres: Film, History, Nonfiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published December 27, 2007

Reviews

[Catnaitab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some essays are better than others, but it certainly takes you on a multifaceted trip through theories of analysing the work of "un-american" film practitioners in the Blacklist Era. The most interesting one of them is the republished "Red Hollywood" by Thom Andersen who not only criticises various works previously published about the blacklisted, in an ironic voice at times but also manages to analyse various cases and films of this era that successfully build his argument. The book touches on issues as varied as Jewish filmmakers and boxing films, the meaning and influence of jazz in "progressive" crime films and the work of the progressive producer Adrian Scott.

[Drew Nevis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great starting off point to anyone interested in movie history about the blacklist era in Tinseltown. I finished this book while still in film school as recreational reading. It has some insight to people's struggle to get work under the "Red scare" and how others were overlooked because they were generating money for the studios and making propaganda films.