Cold War Cinema Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Robert Rossen’s Body and Soul, a 1947 boxing film that critic Thom Andersen categorizes as film gris, or socially conscious crime cinema during the film noir years (1940s through the 1950s). Rossen testified at a HUAC hearing in 1951, pleaded the Fifth Amendment, and was blacklisted. Two years later, he testified again and this time he named 57 names and was given his career back in Hollywood. Rossen went on to direct several more features, including the celebrated pool epic The Hustler (1961) and Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg. We hope you enjoy!

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss John Berry's He Ran All the Way, a 1951 crime drama in the film noir and film gris traditions. The film stars John Garfield, who was shortly thereafter blacklisted and died of a heart attack at age 39. The screenplay is written by Hugo Butler and Dalton Trumbo, both blacklisted, as was the director, John Berry. 
We also discuss Berry's short documentary The Hollywood Ten (1950), a fundarising agitprop documentary about the ten Hollywood personnel jailed in federal prison for contempt of congress in 1050. Here are their names: 
Alvah Bessie, screenwriter Herbert Biberman, screenwriter and director Lester Cole, screenwriter Edward Dmytryk, director Ring Lardner Jr., screenwriter John Howard Lawson, screenwriter Albert Maltz, screenwriter Samuel Ornitz, screenwriter Adrian Scott, producer and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter For more inormation on the 1945 "Black Friday" Hollywood strike that Tony references in the episode, check out this article he co-wrote with Gerald Horne! 
We hope you enjoy!

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Bernard Vorhaus's So Young, So Bad, a 1950 drama about a girls' reform school. The film dares to imagine therapy instead of punishment as a tool to "cure" antisocial behavior. Vorhaus was blacklisted in 1951 after his name was mentioned during the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings. He subsequently relocated to England, where he lived the rest of his life. The opening clip was taken from a fascinating interview of Vorhaus by Ira Gellen in which Vorhaus reflects on his life and career. We hope you enjoy!

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Cy Endfield’s The Sound of Fury aka Try and Get Me!, a 1950 crime film that critic Thom Andersen includes on his list of film gris movies, or socially conscious crime cinema during the film noir years (1940s through the 1950s). Endfield was blacklisted in 1951 after his name was mentioned during the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings. He subsequently relocated to London, where he went on to make a number of celebrated films, including Hell Drivers (1957) and Zulu (1964). In this episode we cite an essay by the Chicago critic Jonathan Rosenbaum that is included in his excellent 1997 book Movies as Politics. We hope you enjoy!

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Jules Dassin’s 1950 crime film Night and the City, a celebrated film noir picture (and film gris) shot on location in London. Like all of the directors discussed this season, Dassin was blacklisted during the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings. The director subsequently relocated to Paris, where he made his groundbreaking heist film Rififi (1955), and later settled in Greece, where he lived the rest of his life. Dassin remained embittered about the blacklist and the Second Red Scare and never shied from speaking publicly about it. This history and a thorough analysis of the film are discussed at length in this episode. We hope you enjoy it! 
 

 
Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Joseph Losey’s 1950 crime film The Lawless, an underseen and somewhat uneven example of what the filmmaker and critic Thom Andersen calls film gris, or socially conscious crime cinema during the film noir years (1940s through the 1950s). Losey was blacklisted in 1952, after his name was mentioned during the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings. He subsequently relocated to London, where he had a second (and admittedly more artistically accomplished) life as a film director, collaborating, mostly notably, with the Nobel Prize–winning playwright and screenwriter, Harold Pinter.