Red Hollywood Page #5

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makes it safely to Murmansk.

Communists felt

comfortable spinning yarns

where the group came

before the individual.

Especially when they

could pay tribute to

proletarian internationalism.

Hey, what does that mean,

tovarisch?

That means comrade.

That's good.

Oh, tov...

Comrade, comrade!

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

NARRATOR:
This dream

of solidarity didn't last

in the postwar backlash.

No more comrades,

abroad or at home.

For support and solace,

workers could no longer

look to their job mates ,

only to their kin.

SUZY:
Timmy!

I couldn't sleep!

SUZY:
Now this is an outrage!

I know it,

but I got to talk

to Uncle Bill

about something.

Important?

Yeah.

What is it, son?

Well you see, Uncle Bill,

if you need it,

well, I can get

your next meal for you.

What do you mean?

Timmy, come on,

let's go to bed, huh?

Wait a minute, Suzy.

What do you mean, son?

Well, I heard

Mom telling Pop

that you were canned

from your job,

and you didn't know

where your next meal

was coming from.

And so, I thought...

Well, I thought I'd get

it for you, Uncle Bill.

BILL:
How?

It's a cinch.

I do it for Papa

all the time.

I just call up the butcher

and tell him I want

a bone for my dog.

Then I bring the bone home

and Mom makes

soup out of it.

And I can do it for you

and Aunt Suzy tomorrow.

It's real easy, Uncle Bill.

Only big people

can't do it.

It takes a kid.

Did the butcher

ever get wise?

No. Anyway...

BILL:
Anyway what?

He knows...

BILL:
He knows what?

I ain't got a dog.

People who are

sore as hell is

what's going on...

About... Radicalized their

pictures even more.

Now, as time went on

and, uh...

And people felt

they had just

one more chance,

or they're gonna get

just one more movie...

They might give way to...

More explicitly to

what they believed,

and in that sense you

might see a group of films

appearing more explicitly so

than formerly.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

NARRATOR:
There was

a new radicalism

in the films

of the late '40s.

Communist filmmakers depicted

working class life

with a new realism,

untempered by the redeeming

optimism of the '30s.

The degradations of poverty

were no longer glossed over.

I have your letter here.

Mrs. Anna Davis,

is that right?

Yes, I'm Anna Davis.

Now, just a form

to make a proper check.

Race, white.

Religion, Jewish.

Nationality, American.

Is this your boy?

I'm Charley Davis.

Are you unemployed?

Why, you got

a job for me?

Have you tried?

He tried.

All these questions must be

answered, I'm sorry.

Have you tried

to get a job, Mrs. Davis?

Would I be asking for

a loan from charity,

if I could find work?

It isn't personal,

we're supposed to ask.

Have you any

resources, any jewelry?

She has her

wedding ring.

We don't ask our clients to

sell their wedding rings.

I wish you'd understand,

I have to ask these questions.

Charley, please, go

in the other room.

Is this furniture yours?

Get out of here!

Charley, I won't have

you talking like this!

Get out of here,

get out of here!

We have to ask questions

if we're going to help.

We don't want any help.

Tell them we're dead!

We don't want any help!

I did it to buy

myself fancy clothes?

Fool, it's for you,

to learn, to get

an education, to make

something of yourself!

Shorty...

Shorty, get me that fight

from Quinn. I want

money, do you understand?

Money, money!

I forbid!

Better you buy a gun

and shoot yourself!

You need money

to buy a gun!

NARRATOR:
Already

athletic prowess might promise

an escape from poverty

and the hidden

injuries of class.

Already the promise

might prove to be illusory.

A 1951 football saga

exposed and condemned

what everyone now

takes for granted about

big-time college sports.

It's a business.

Except the workers

don't get paid.

For a poor kid

with talent and luck,

it's a way out of the mills,

but talent and spirit

can't keep luck from

turning bad on you.

Don't you want to play

next week, Novak?

I can't play.

The doctor didn't say that.

Okay, so the kid could

cripple himself for life.

He said there was

some risk involved.

There's risk involved every

time you go out on the field.

Okay then,

I don't want to play.

You're over-trained, Novak.

You're all tightened up.

I'll have my

doctor look at you.

We'll get a special brace

made for your shoulder.

You'll go in the next

week and run wild.

We'll have reporters down

from all over the East.

It's no use.

Your shoulder will

probably stand up fine.

Next year, we'll

have a schedule

like we never had before.

You'll have a chance

for All-American,

a chance to be somebody,

write your own ticket.

What kind of a sucker

do you take

him for, McCabe?

Who wanted to see

him in the big time?

Who had the big dream

for Novak, the local boy?

Okay, so now I'm awake

and the dream was cockeyed,

a dumb

sportswriter's dream,

because I left out

everything that really

mattered to the kid.

That's why now he's going to

play, not for old Jackson or

any of that swill,

not for T.C. McCabe,

he's going

to play for himself,

because there's

nothing else he can do.

What are you without football?

For two years we fixed your

marks so you could coast by.

You can't meet the competition

of men who really

worked at their books.

You won't be able to get a job

through pull, either,

because in another year,

nobody will remember you.

You're not that important yet.

You're only beginning.

You'll be just

another poor slob that

used to play football.

Get out of here,

You'll play.

There's nothing

else you can do.

NARRATOR:
Perhaps today

this old film can ask us

why we take class

injustice for granted.

Lay off for

a few days, Novak.

Get yourself some sleep.

It will do you good.

NARRATOR:
The dawn of

capitalism's golden age was

subjectively a dark time.

For Hollywood's

Communists, disillusionment

turned to desperation

as the blacklist descended.

Released from the obligatory

optimism of wartime propaganda

and sensing that they

would soon be silenced,

they fiercely

castigated the most sacred

institutions of American life,

from football to marriage.

Hello, hello.

Do you do the marrying?

That's my business.

I have a $30

wedding which gives

a complete recording

of the ceremony on records.

I have $20 wedding...

Will you just marry us?

Well, that'll be $20.

(WOMAN BEGINS PLAYING ORGAN)

(PLAYING STOPS)

By virtue of the

power vested in me,

I hereby perform

this wedding ceremony.

Do you, Catherine,

take this man Arthur as

your lawful wedding husband,

to love, honor,

and cherish, henceforth?

I do.

Do you Arthur take

this woman, Catherine,

as your lawful wedding wife,

to love, honor

and cherish, henceforth?

I do.

Well, put the ring

on her finger.

Now, by virtue of the

power vested in me,

I now pronounce you

husband and wife.

You don't think much of my way

of marrying people, do you?

I sure don't.

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