Customer Reviews

Hollywood on Trial

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This one is pretty hard to find, but well worth it. It's got alot of really good archival footage from the House Unamerican Activities hearings, as well as some great interviews with Trumbo and several others who are no longer around to tell their stories. A really grotesque and absurd episode in American politics that should not be forgotten.

This film was made in 1976 when most of the Hollywood Ten were still living. Dalton Trumbo died shortly after it was made. The film is The Hollywood Left's side of the story. This is an interesting documentary from a historical point of view as it contains first person interviews with many of the key players who recall from the point of hindsight their roles in the HUAC Hearings. Viewers watching the documentary should also read the book "Hollywood Party "by Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley to get a proper perspective. In this film the Hollywood Left continues to claim they were innocent victims of a witch hunt. To some degree this is true, The FBI no doubt already knew who party members were and the 1947 HUAC hearings were more about Congressman J Parnell Thomas wanting to gain publicity. However the Hollywood Party also knew how to play dirty. Communist union leaders created black lists of Hollywood actors it deemed hostile to its cause such as Ronald Reagan and Robert Taylor. One interview in this film that was interesting was Mallard Lampbell one the original Almanac Singers who left out of his interview that during the Nazi-Soviet pact the Almanac Singers made numerous anti war songs where FDR was a warmongering imperialist trying to provoke war with Germany. The Communist Party and movement in America was directed by the Contern in Moscow. This has been proven in de-classified Soviet files made public after 1992. This film is excellent testimony made by the Hollywood left in 1976 but we can now see today their hypocrisy and in some cases outright lies.