Red Hollywood Page #4

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WOMAN:
Well, Sophie,

if that's human nature,

we better change it,

or there won't be anything

human left to change.

MARY:
Nobody wants war.

Anyway, whatever it is

we have to face,

we better be ready for it.

WOMAN:
We better be ready

in our thinking too, Mary,

not just with our bombs.

I say we ought to

stop thinking about

fighting each other,

and think some about

understanding each other.

And that means all of us.

When everybody

all over the world

talks about nothing

but war,

what do you think

we'll get? War!

People say another war

means the end of the world.

MARY:
War will come,

want it or not.

The only question is when.

WOMAN:
Just in time

to get more youngsters

like Peter.

(WOMEN CHUCKLING)

You know,

it's very seldom

that a film comes out

really just the way

you intended.

(CHUCKLES)

Well, I think

The Boy with Green Hair

was close to that.

Um...

And it was partly

because...

Um...

The director...

...uh, was...

...stayed with us

very closely.

I mean, we had

a good rapport.

It was Joe Losey.

See, there are aspects

of the picture,

certainly, that were anti-war,

they were intended to be.

But there was also...

Aspects, certain

relationships that were,

I felt were good.

NARRATOR:

Communists could make

political statements

in Hollywood movies

when their viewers

could readily agree

with their positions,

but they also wrote

and directed small movies

about ordinary people

and everyday life,

films about

human relationships,

and here perhaps

they could say something

that spectators

didn't already know,

something that today

we all know

but have forgotten.

Back in the '30s,

class solidarity

was still an ideal.

The homeless were

not yet the excluded.

Riding in the truck

all night is no picnic.

I told you it wasn't

going to be any cinch.

I'm not complaining.

(BOTTLES CLINKING)

Say, doesn't that

give you a swell feeling

to see milk in bottles

instead of cows?

(CHUCKLES)

Wonderful.

Hey.

Now what's the market

quotation on milk

this morning?

14 grade-A, 12 for B.

What's the difference

between A and B?

Well, they both came

from the same cow,

only grade B is where

the cow started

to lose interest.

Well, we'll take

a bottle of B.

Yes, ma'am.

Got to eat.

Broke, huh?

Not broke,

but not flush.

This is on

the company.

Will it get you

in trouble?

So they'll pass

a dividend.

Thanks, thanks

very much.

Okay.

It's too bad they

don't make donuts, too.

Yeah.

I'll take that up

at the next board

of directors meeting.

(ALL LAUGHING)

He's a swell guy,

isn't he?

Anybody who has to

get up this early

in the morning

usually is a swell guy.

No, gentlemen,

expansion now

is out of the question.

Production must be

kept down to where it is

if we are to keep

our profits up.

Gentlemen,

perhaps we should

voluntarily open

some of the factories

we shut down

before the government

does it for us.

That's splendid, Gorman.

Splendid!

Open the factories,

flood the market,

give our product away,

and then call our firm

National Charities

Incorporated.

NARRATOR:

The logic of

capitalist accumulation

had set itself at odds

with human values,

and this contradiction

was plainly visible

during the Depression.

In most social problem

films of the '30s,

the solution came from above,

from Roosevelt's New Deal,

but Nathanael West

and Lester Cole

advocated direct action

by the productive

workers themselves.

No use telling you folks

about the banking business

in this neck of the woods.

There just ain't

none to talk about.

MAN:
Well,

what's the matter

with the cannery?

(CROWD CLAMORING)

Well, there ain't

much to tell

about that, either.

If Congress

had passed

the Trades

Reconstruction Bill,

1,500 of you men and women

would've been

earning a living again.

Since that bill

was killed,

our hands are tied.

What are we

going to do?

(CROWD CLAMORING)

We simply got to wait.

AUDIENCE:
Wait?

(ANGRY MURMURS)

REEVES:
We can't wait

any longer.

Get back there,

Reeves.

That cannery's

got to open.

If it don't,

we men don't work.

And you farmers

don't sell your produce.

Wait? Waiting ain't

for the working man.

You can't wait

when you're hungry.

(ALL MURMURING

IN AGREEMENT)

If that factory

don't start up again,

Springvale will become

a ghost town.

There's been a heap

of living in Springvale,

160 years of it.

But if we got

to give it up,

let's die fighting,

not just sitting back

and hoping!

(AUDIENCE CLAMORING)

RED:
What do you do

with the dough

that they give you

for breaking your backs?

You buy just enough

bread to keep going on!

NARRATOR:

If a Hollywood film

could occasionally

condemn a strike

by capital,

it would always condemn

a strike by labor.

Wait a minute,

just a minute!

Kick those folks

off the quay

and our cause is lost.

Ah, shut up and get off

of that barrel.

Where do you think

you are, Russia?

No, I wish I was!

Well, swim over there

and see how you like it.

(CROWD CLAMORING)

(CROWD LAUGHING)

Now listen, fellas...

MAN:
Who put you up there?

CROWD:
(AGREEING) Yeah.

Now wait a minute.

I'll tell you

why I'm up here.

It's because you won't

listen to brains.

But you ain't got the nerve

not to listen to me.

When we was kids,

we used to fight

like wild cats,

but if an outside

gang came in

we'd stuck together

and throw them out.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

You bet we'd run 'em out!

Brains says that Nick

wants us to strike. Yeah.

Yeah. You get that?

He wants us to strike.

He thinks we're suckers,

but we ain't.

We ain't gonna fight,

and I'll sock

the first guy

in the puss

that says we are.

NARRATOR:

During the war,

strikes were unthinkable,

at least in movies.

Communist labor leaders

supported a no-strike

pledge in industry,

while Communist

screenwriters worked overtime

to bring recalcitrant

individualists into line.

Look, we know

what's what.

Guys like us

killed on ships,

the fish pecking

at our eyes.

Who cares

about us anyway?

Everybody's nuts

about the Army and Navy.

What are we

supposed to be,

skeletons in a closet

or something?

Oh, yes, and now

they're going

to give us medals.

Medals?

But what good is a medal

when you're washed up

on a beach

in a mess of seaweed,

and nobody even knows

what you died for?

I want to bounce

my kid on my knee.

I want to be

with my wife. Go on

make a law against it,

put me in a nut house

for thinking

things like this.

Well, why don't you

say something?

You all dumb

because I spilled

what you're all thinking?

So you want

a safe job, huh?

Go ask the Czechs

and the Poles

and the Greeks,

they were figuring

on safe jobs.

They're lined up in front

of guns, digging

each other's graves.

The trouble with you,

Pulaski, is you think America

is just a place

to eat and sleep in.

You don't know

what side your future

is buttered on.

NARRATOR:

Pulaski is converted,

he goes back to sea,

and his liberty ship

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