One of the persistent myths about Cecil B. DeMille was that he had a foot fetish. DeMille Biographer Charles Higham in 1969 made the claim of DeMille’s foot fetism in his discussion of Feet of Clay (1924) where he wrote that there was ‘no doubt’ that DeMille’s obsession with feet drew him to […]
Run of DeMille Red Scare, Blacklist and a Directorial Feud
Run of DeMille Red Scare, Blacklist and a Directorial Feud December 8, 2017 Cinemontage Hollywood Divided: The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist by Kevin Brianton University Press of Kentucky, 2016 Hardcover, 174 pages, $45.00 ISBN # 978-0-8131-6892-0 by Betsy A. McLane The blacklisting of Communists, former Communists, union supporters, […]
Roundup review
KEVIN BRIANTON Hollywood Divided: The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist University Press of Kentucky Hardcover, 156 pages, $45 KentuckyPress.com. When legend becomes fact, print the facts. Finally! On October 22, 1950, during the height of the Red Scare, Screen Directors Guild members met to vote on the dismissal of […]
Mission to Moscow (1943) – Hollywood goes Stalinist
The most controversial of these pro-Stalin films was Mission to Moscow (1943) which was based on the autobiography of the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union Joseph E. Davies. The film glorified Stalin at a time when the United States desperately wanted to maintain the alliance with the Soviet Union. The film glossed over […]
Westerns against HUAC: Johnny Guitar (1954)
Johnny Guitar (1954) was directed against HUAC in a different way to High Noon. In the film, Johnny Guitar, played by Sterling Hayden, returned to this estranged lover Vienna, played by Joan Crawford, who owned a disreputable bar. A stage robbery occurred in town, and a banker was killed. The dead man’s sister Emma Small, […]
Storm Center (1956) – a strike against anticommunism
One American film which stood out clearly against McCarthyism was Storm Center (1956) which focused on a small town in America where a librarian Alicia Hull, played by Bette Davis, was dismissed for having a book called ‘The Communist Dream’ on the library’s shelves. The local council wanted the book removed and for future decisions […]
Ninotchka (1939)
Against the background of the Stalinist show trials and the Nazi-Soviet pact, there were strong anti-communist and anti-Russian sympathies in the United States. A small cycle of films with anti-communist themes began with the most famous and popular of these films being Ninotchka, which was made in 1939. Communist emissary Ninotchka was given some vicious […]
Hollywood Divided: A review by Raquel Stecher
Hollywood Divided by Kevin Brianton Hollywood Divided The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist by Kevin Brianton University Press of Kentucky October 2016 Hardcover ISBN: 9780813168920 174 pages Amazon – Barnes and Noble – Powell’s On October 22, 1950, more than 500 directors met at the Beverly Hills Hotel for […]
DeMille vs. Mankiewicz, October 22, 1950 – Frederick on Film
Am interesting discussion of the Screen Directors Meeting on 22 October 1950 in Frederick on Film. https://fredrikonfilm.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/demille-vs-mankiewicz-october-22-1950.html
Hollywood Divided on Film Buffs Forecast
I was a guest on Film Buffs Forecast’s Episode 2 for an 80-minute in-depth interview (which will be broadcast over the next 4 episodes). I talk about the events behind and leading up to the momentous October 1950 of the Screen Directors’ Guild at a time when the Red Scare was warming up . The […]