Holly Forrest Teaches: 2012

Friday, April 13, 2012

Viola/Cesario

Twelfth Night shows a female character who masquerades as a man:

Imogen Stubbs as Viola/Cesario
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8DGoF0CQlU&feature=related

Helen Hunt as Viola in Twelfth Night - begin at 1:46
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG8U_iUo4mY

Beatrice

Monologue illuminates her character - Emma Thompson in Much Ado, 1993

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl0lBHti99A&feature=fvsr

Dialogue illuminates further, with Benedick as foil - Thompson and Kenneth Branagh in Much Ado
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf_UK4axr_E

Shakespeare's People

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Ring Lardner, Jr. Oral History Interview

Here is the first of six segments of a lengthy interview with one of the Hollywood Ten.

You can go to youtube for the remaining segments.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Joseph Losey inspiration for Scorsese character

Helen Gahagan Douglas - The Pink Lady

Dorothy Comingore, inspiration for Dorothy Nolan in Guilty by Suspicion

Blacklisted!

http://www.wgbh.org/article/?item_id=3625029

Jenny Holzer: Blacklist

http://fisher.usc.edu/collections/blacklist.html

Arthur Miller - The Crucible

The Crucible

Written by	Arthur Miller
Characters	Abigail Williams Reverend John Hale Reverend Samuel Parris John Proctor Elizabeth Proctor Thomas Danforth Mary Warren John Hathorne Giles Corey
Date premiered	January 22, 1953
Place premiered	Martin Beck Theatre, New York City
Original language	English
Subject	Salem witch trials, McCarthyism
Genre	Tragedy, drama
Setting	Salem, Massachusetts
IBDB profile

The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists.^[1] Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of "contempt of Congress" for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

Student made trailer for film version

Walter Bernstein on Blacklisting and Fronts

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/walter-bernstein-2

Woody Allen's The Front

Warning: Bad language

Zero Mostel by Jim Brochu "Zero Hour"

From the play "Zero Hour" written and performed by Jim Brochu, famed actor Zero Mostel talks about the Hollywood Blacklist and the House Unamerican Activities Committee, and about "Loose Lips," Jerome Robbins who gave names.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM_Tjc1H1t4

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Alvah Bessie

Bessie held strong left-wing views and joined the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War fought alongside Robert Merriman, David Doran, Leonard Lamb, Joe Bianca and Edwin Rolfe, who he described as being "frail; he resembled a bird; he had a fine, delicate bone structure and he did not look as though he should be in an army... I do not think I have ever met a gentler guy, a less pugnacious guy, less of a soldier. But he had the iron of conviction in him just the same. He had a tiny automatic pistol some one had given him, and it became him, though I could not imagine him ever using it."

While in Spain he was interviewed by journalists, Ernst Toller, Ernest Hemingway, Vincent Sheean and Herbert Matthews. Bessie took part in the battle for Gandesa and served under Milton Wolff at the Ebro. On his return he wrote a book, Men in Battle (1939) about his experiences in Spain. He was also appointed as drama and film reviewer of the New Masses (1939-43).

Bessie moved to Hollywood and two of his screenplays were produced by Warner Brothers, Northern Pursuit (1943) and The Very Thought of You (1944). His next screenplay, the extremely patriotic, Objective Burma (1945) was nominated for an Academy Award. This was followed by Hotel Berlin (1945), Ruthless (1948) and Smart Woman (1948).

1986 Hard Traveling (novel "Bread and a Stone")

1974 The Sex Symbol (TV movie) (novel "The Symbol")

1969 Spain Again (screenplay collaboration)

1951 Passage West (story / front Nedrick Young)

1948 Smart Woman (screenplay)

1948 Ruthless (screenplay / originally - uncredited)

1945 Hotel Berlin

1945 Objective, Burma! (original story)

1944 The Very Thought of You (screenplay)

1943 Northern Pursuit (screenplay)

Ring Lardner, Jr.

Film Clip: Woman of the Year 1942

Blacklisted by the Hollywood studios, Lardner worked for the next couple of years on the novel, The Ecstasy of Owen Muir (1954). He moved to England for a time where he wrote under several pseudonyms for television series such as The Adventures of Robin Hood. The blacklist was lifted when producer Martin Ransohoff and director Norman Jewison gave him screen credit for writing 1965's The Cincinnati Kid. Lardner's later work included M*A*S*H (1970), for which he won the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay, and The Greatest (1977). His final film project was an adaptation of Roger Kahn's classic book, "The Boys of Summer." To Ring's great regret, funding did not materialize.

According to Hungarian writer Miklos Vamos—who visited Lardner several times before his death—Lardner won an Academy Award for a movie he wrote under a pseudonym.^{Lardner refused to tell which movie it was, saying that it would be unfair to reveal it because the writer who allowed Lardner, Jr., to use his name as a front(as Lardner's pseudonym) was doing him a big favor at the time.}

Howard Biberman

Howard Biberman

Film Trailer: Salt of the Earth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDe80G96K1Q

Biberman and his fellow Ten went to jail over their contempt convictions, Biberman for six months. Edward Dmytryk ultimately cooperated with the House committee, but Biberman and the others were blacklisted by official Hollywood movie studio bosses.

Biberman went to work independently after his release from jail. The result was Salt of the Earth, a fictionalized account of the Grant County miners' strike written by Michael Wilson and produced by Paul Jarrico, neither of whom were members of the Ten but both of whom were also blacklisted. Biberman died in New York City.

Salt of the Earth has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film has also been preserved by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Wilson, one of the blacklisted screenwriters who worked under assumed names, later won an Academy Award for a screenplay he wrote under a nom de plume, Bridge on the River Kwai.

Edward Dmytryk

Give us this Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpSQ0Ha1Gh8

Tender Comrade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Nzz8NSDbI

Summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), he refused to cooperate and was sent to jail. After spending several months behind bars, Dmytryk made the decision to testify again, and give the names of his fellow members in the American Communist Party as the HUAC had demanded. On April 25, 1951, Dmytryk appeared before HUAC for the second time, answering all questions. He spoke of his own Party past, a very brief membership in 1945, including the naming of twenty-six former members of left-wing groups. He explained how John Howard Lawson, Adrian Scott, Albert Maltz and others had pressured him to include communist propaganda in his films. His testimony damaged several court cases that others of the so-called "Hollywood 10" had filed. He recounted his experiences of the period in his revealing 1996 book, Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten (Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL).

The Hawk (1935)
Million Dollar Legs (uncredited; 1939)
Television Spy (1939)
Emergency Squad (1940)
Golden Gloves (1940)
Mystery Sea Raider (1940)
Her First Romance (1940)
The Devil Commands (1941)
Under Age (1941)
Sweetheart of the Campus (1941)
The Blonde from Singapore (1941)
Secrets of the Lone Wolf (1941)
Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941)
Counter-Espionage (1942)
Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942)
Hitler's Children (1943)
The Falcon Strikes Back (1943)
Captive Wild Woman (1943)
Behind the Rising Sun (1943)
Tender Comrade (1943)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Back to Bataan (1945)
Cornered (1945)
Till the End of Time (1946)
So Well Remembered (1947)
Crossfire (1947)
Obsession (1949)
Give Us This Day (1949)
The Sniper (1952)
Mutiny (1952)
Eight Iron Men (1952)
The Juggler (1953)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Broken Lance (1954)
The End of the Affair (1954)
Soldier of Fortune (1955)
The Left Hand of God (1955)
The Mountain (1956)
Raintree County (1957)
The Young Lions (1958)
The Blue Angel (1959)
Warlock (1959)
Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
The Reluctant Saint (1962)
The Carpetbaggers (1964)
Where Love Has Gone (1964)
Mirage (1965)
Alvarez Kelly (1966)
Anzio (film) (1968)
Shalako (1968)
Bluebeard (1972)

John Howard Lawson

Sahara: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBMbxPZSZdQ&feature=related

Lawson appeared before the HUAC on October 29, 1947, but like Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Dalton Trumbo, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Samuel Ornitz and Ring Lardner Jr, he refused to answer any questions. Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the First Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this. The HUAC and U.S. appeals courts, however, disagreed and all were found guilty of contempt of Congress and Lawson was sentenced to twelve months in Ashland Prison and fined $1,000. In his 1951 HUAC testimony, Edward Dmytryk testified that Lawson had pressured him to put communist propaganda in his films.

Lawson had organized and led the attack on Albert Maltz when Maltz published an article, "What Shall We Ask of Writers", in The New Masses, challenging the didacticism of the American Communist Party's censorship of writers. Surprised by the ferocity of attack from his fellow writers, including Lawson, Howard Fast, Alvah Bessie, Ring Lardner, Jr., Samuel Sillen, and others, Maltz publicly recanted.

Lester Cole

Lester Cole, screenwriter

Between 1932 and 1947 Cole wrote more than forty screenplays that were made into motion pictures. After his blacklisting, just three screenplays were made into films, only after friends, and wife Gerald L.C. Copley, Lewis Copley, and J. Redmond Prior, submitted the screenplays under their names.

His best-known work was the highly successful 1966 film Born Free.

Film Clip: Objective, Burma!

1966 Born Free (screenplay / originally as Gerald L.C. Copley)

1965 Onkelchens Traum (TV movie)

1961 Operation Eichmann (written by / originally as Lewis Copley)

1950 Chain Lightning (story "These Many Years" / originally as J. Redmond Prior)

1947 High Wall

1947 The Romance of Rosy Ridge

1947 Fiesta

1946 Strange Conquest (story)

1945 Men in Her Diary (adaptation)

1945 Blood on the Sun (screenplay)

1945 Objective, Burma! (screenplay)

1944 None Shall Escape

1943 Hostages (writer)

1943 The Good Fellows (contract writer - uncredited)

1943 Night Plane from Chungking (screenplay)

1941 Pacific Blackout (screenplay)

1941 Among the Living (screenplay / story)

1941 Bad Men of Missouri (contributing writer - uncredited)

1941 Footsteps in the Dark (screenplay)

1940 The House of the Seven Gables

1940 The Invisible Man Returns (screenplay)

1939 The Big Guy (screenplay)

1939 I Stole a Million (story)

1939 Winter Carnival (writer)

1939 Pirates of the Skies (story "Sky Police")

1938 Secrets of a Nurse (screenplay)

1938 Sinners in Paradise (screenplay)

1938 The Crime of Doctor Hallet (screenplay / story)

1938 Midnight Intruder (screenplay)

1938 The Jury's Secret (story and screenplay)

1937 Some Blondes Are Dangerous

1937 The Man in Blue (screenplay)

1937 Affairs of Cappy Ricks (original screenplay)

1936 The President's Mystery (screenplay)

1936 Follow Your Heart

1935 Hitch Hike Lady (screenplay)

1935 Too Tough to Kill

1935 Dante's Inferno (contributor to treatment - uncredited)

1935 Under Pressure

1934 Nada más que una mujer (screenplay)

1934 Charlie Chan in London (additional dialogue - uncredited)

1934 Pursued

1934 Wild Gold

1934 Sleepers East

1934 Three on a Honeymoon (contract writer - uncredited)

1933 Walls of Gold (writer)

1933 Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (writer)

1932 If I Had a Million

Albert Maltz

Albert Maltz, screenwriter

For his script for the 1945 film Pride of the Marines, Maltz was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He won the 1951 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Drama for his screenplay for Broken Arrow. However, due to his blacklisting at the time, fellow MPAA screenwriter Michael Blankfort put his own name on the script as the only way to get it accepted by any of the Hollywood movie studios. As such, Blankfort was named the winner until things were made right for Maltz, albeit posthumously, in 1997 when the Writers Guild of America unanimously voted to restore screen credit to those who had been blacklisted.

Film Clip: Pride of the Marines

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)
The Robe (1953) (originally uncredited)
Broken Arrow (1950) (originally uncredited)
The Naked City (1948)
The Red House (1947)
Cloak and Dagger (1946)
Pride of the Marines (1945)
The House I Live In (1945)
This Gun for Hire (1942)

Adrian Scott

Adrian Scott, producer and screenwriter

Adrian Scott was the producer of the film noirs Murder, My Sweet (1944), Cornered (1945), and Crossfire (1947), all of which were directed by Edward Dmytryk. Crossfire was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In October 1947, Scott was called to testify during the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings on Hollywood but - as did nine others - refused to testify and was sentenced to jail. Edward Dmytryk, another of these Hollywood Ten, later, in 1951 testified before the HUAC that Scott pressured him to put communist propaganda in his films.

Here is a clip from Crossfire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dRDINoVTec&feature=related

1972 The Great Man's Whiskers (TV movie) (play)

1960 Conspiracy of Hearts (story / front Dale Pitt)

1955 The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)

1946 Miss Susie Slagle's (adaptation)

1943 Mr. Lucky (screenplay)

1941 We Go Fast (screenplay)

1941 The Parson of Panamint

1940 Keeping Company (screenplay)

Dalton Trumbo

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z_Wk8Dz2n8

Trumbo
http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=Y-Fb1bL67J8&feature=mv_sr

Dalton Trumbo
Trumbo with wife Cleo at House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, 1947

James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter and novelist. As one of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry. Trumbo won two Academy Awards while blacklisted; one was originally given to a front writer, and one was awarded to Robert Rich, Trumbo's pseudonym.

Blacklisting effectively ended in 1960 when it lost credibility. Trumbo was publicly given credit for two blockbuster films: Otto Preminger made public that Trumbo wrote the screenplay for the smash hit, Exodus, and Kirk Douglas publicly announced that Trumbo was the screenwriter of Spartacus. Further, President-elect John F. Kennedy crossed picket lines to see the movie.

His son Christopher Trumbo wrote a play based on his letters during the period of the blacklist, entitled Red, White and Blacklisted (2003), produced in New York in 2003. He adapted it as a film, adding material from documentary footage, Trumbo (2007).

On December 19, 2011, The Writers Guild of America announced that Trumbo will get full credit for his work on the screenplay of the 1953 romantic comedy Roman Holiday, sixty years after the fact.

Spartacus - Dalton Trumbo


Theatrical release poster by Reynold Brown
Directed by	Stanley Kubrick Anthony Mann (uncredited)
Produced by	Edward Lewis Kirk Douglas (executive)
Screenplay by	Dalton Trumbo
Based on	Spartacus by Howard Fast
Narrated by	Vic Perrin
Starring	Kirk Douglas Laurence Olivier Peter Ustinov John Gavin Jean Simmons Charles Laughton Tony Curtis
Music by	Alex North
Cinematography	Russell Metty Stanley Kubrick (uncredited)
Editing by	Robert Lawrence
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	October 7, 1960 (1960-10-07)
Running time	184 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12 million
Box office	$60,000,000

Original 1960 theatrical release poster

Spartacus is a 1960 American epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast. The life story of the historical figure Spartacus and the events of the Third Servile War were adapted by Dalton Trumbo as a screenplay.

The film stars Kirk Douglas as rebellious slave Spartacus and Laurence Olivier as his foe, the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. Co-starring are Peter Ustinov (who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus), John Gavin (as Julius Caesar), Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, John Ireland, Herbert Lom, Woody Strode, Tony Curtis, John Dall and Charles McGraw. The film won four Oscars in all.

The titles were designed by Saul Bass, who also has a credit as "visual consultant".

Anthony Mann, the film's original director, was replaced by Douglas with Kubrick after the first week of shooting.

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted at the time as one of the Hollywood Ten. Kirk Douglas publicly announced that Trumbo was the screenwriter of Spartacus, and President-elect John F. Kennedy crossed picket lines to see the movie, helping to end blacklisting.

Film Clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8h_v_our_Q