HOLLYWOOD ON TRIAL (1976) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: David Helpern Jr.
An Oscar-nominated documentary ab0ut the McCarthy-era blacklist, with the focus on the Hollywood Ten, the filmmakers - mostly screenwriters - who refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee and paid a steep price for their courage. John Huston delivers the straightforward narration, but mostly what you get here is filmed testimony from the HUAC hearings and interview footage shot years later with most of the key witnesses. Whatever side you came down on back then, the Red Scare and the industry's response to it were chilling. Some people went to jail. Others named names. Some lost their homes and their jobs. Some went to Europe and some never worked in Hollywood again. Everybody was scared, except maybe Ronald Reagan, who blithely dismisses the whole thing with the same relaxed cunning that would get him elected president someday. Dalton Trumbo, Ring Lardner Jr. and Edward Dmytryk are among the other witnesses.
