Red Hollywood Page #8

---

I won't be

frightened for sure.

WOMAN 2:
Oh, she is

a nice little thing, really.

But you know, radio,

full of big stars like Ken

and the women they

happen to marry before

they were successful.

WOMAN:
Would you like

to see my baby?

MAN:
You think you

can hold him just

because you have a baby?

WOMAN:
Oh, Ken,

I was trying so hard.

If I can just get

some self-confidence.

Steve, was the trip

to California fun?

Not for me, too much work.

How about Ken,

and Martha?

They seemed to enjoy

themselves, didn't they?

Angie, don't.

You're imagining things.

I seem to have

a talent for it, Steve.

(CHUCKLING)

Oh, I'd love to see

you all mussed up!

Steady, Angie.

Everything in this house

belongs to you, doesn't it?

You picked it all out.

Even this pendant!

Well I don't want it.

Take it!

Mrs. Conway!

Then why don't you get out?

Why just keep whining around

about how you've had enough?

I've had enough, too!

Get out and let me alone!

Is that what you want?

Listen to you. You can't

even say it yourself!

You make me say it!

A divorce! A divorce!

I'm not afraid to say it!

Okay, Angie.

(DOOR SHUTS)

NARRATOR:
Susan Hayward

became an icon

of Hollywood feminism.

In Smash-Up, she suffered.

In I Can Get It for

You Wholesale,

she fought back.

Why don't you go home? You

don't have to do this to get

orders!

Do what, Teddy darling?

Spoon-feed this drunk.

Now just a minute, Sherman.

You can't talk like this

in front of a lady.

Don't you take your buyers

out, wine them, dine them,

and amuse them?

That's different.

How?

Because I'm a man, and you're

supposed to be a lady,

that's why.

It's different!

How?

I'll write you a letter.

In the meantime, let's go!

Now, look here, Sherman,

this lady is in my company...

I don't want you

pawed and all the rest in

front of the whole world.

This place is full of my

friends. Now, let's go!

Just a minute...

Why you...

Forget it. All we

lost was an order.

You lost more than

an order. You lost me.

That just shows you

how much I like you.

Who asked you to show me?

Taxi!

I couldn't help myself.

You know how I feel about you.

Sure, I'm part of the

Teddy Sherman circus!

Do you think I got in this

business with you

and Cooper just for money?

You've been on

my mind ever since

that first night we went out.

And I've begun to like it.

And the more I like it,

the less I like to see you

selling yourself to a

buyer like a prize that comes

in a box of Cracker Jacks.

You mean like you sell

yourself to those lady buyers

from the Southern Circuit?

What kind of talk is that?

You're the kind

of girl I could marry!

Didn't you hear me?

I'm proposing to you.

What do you expect

me to do,

throw my arms around you?

When you marry someone, it'll

be to rope her off, while you

go on playing the field.

Can't you get it through

your head I love you?

You love me? You mean

you want to own me.

I worked

and schemed

to get a business started

just so I could be

free of men like you, so I

could belong to myself.

Listen, Harriet...

You love me so much,

that for the sake of that

crummy male ego of yours,

you're ready to

take something I've worked for

and dreamed about all my life

and kick it under

a barroom table.

That's how much you love me!

All right, I'll carry

you back in there

and dump you in Savage's lap,

but that finishes it,

I want out!

Get yourself another partner!

Oh no, I've got a partner.

You!

The best in the business,

and you're going

to help me get rich.

The contract is

signed, sealed,

delivered. Unbreakable.

And you won't get out, never.

So make up your

mind to like it.

Taxi!

There are no

villains in that.

The villain is the

system that's causing it.

Now whether that system will

be used to destroy her or not

is what it's about.

She's struggling to be

recognized as a person

in the picture

for what she is,

against all the general

attitudes against her.

So that's the woman

question, right?

And since that was

the way they referred to it

in the old left-wing days,

that's what they called it.

NARRATOR:
There was,

and there remains,

another woman question.

Communists recognized

that working-class

women had other problems,

that poor, single

mothers faced hard choices.

All yours.

Five minutes.

(BABY CRYING)

What are we going to do?

Tell me,

you're a smart little fellow.

What do you think?

You see, they tell me

I have to decide whether

you and I stick together,

or whether we both

go our own ways.

Tell me,

couldn't we try it?

You and I in

a cold water flat,

with no one to take care of

you while I'm at work.

Couldn't you take

care of yourself?

Sure you could.

Wash your own diapers,

feed yourself,

fix your own bottle.

What's the matter?

It'll be all right.

What's there to be sad about?

NARRATOR:
But only after

the blacklist had forced them

outside the studio system

could Hollywood Communists

make a film in which

working-class women stood up

and demanded equality.

(MAN SPEAKING SPANISH)

Brother chairman,

if you read the court

injunction carefully,

you will see that

they only prohibit striking

miners from picketing.

We women are

not striking miners.

We will take

over your picket line.

(MEN LAUGHING)

Don't laugh.

We have a solution,

you have none.

Brother King said it

right when he said,

"We'll lose 50 years of gains

"if we lose this strike."

Your wives

and children, too.

But this we promise,

if women take your

places on the picket line,

the strike will not be broken

and no scabs

will take your jobs.

(WHISTLING)

Hey girls,

wait a minute, don't you

want to see my pistol?

Shut up. What's so amusing?

(LAUGHING)

They're flaunting

a court order,

Oh, I'm not so sure

about that, Mr. Alexander.

Letter of the law,

you know.

All that injunction

says is there's no

picketing by miners.

Whose side are you on anyway?

Aw, don't get excited,

they'll scatter like quail.

MAN:
Well, let's get

at it, before another

100 dames shows up.

All right boys.

What about these?

Forget it, they'll

scatter like quail.

(CROWD SCREAMING)

NARRATOR:
No Hollywood film

had ever shown a strike from

the workers' point of view.

No Hollywood film

had ever portrayed

a strike as just and rational.

No Hollywood film

had ever given Chicanos

the leading parts

and put Anglos

in subordinate roles.

No Hollywood

film had ever shown

women courageously

and effectively taking

over the work of men.

Salt of the Earth broke

all these taboos,

but it never reached

its intended public.

We shall

not be moved

The Union is our leader

We shall not be moved

Just like a tree

that's standing by the water

We shall

not be moved

After the opening in New York

where the picture

was well-received,

not only by an audience

who packed the theater for

nine weeks, I think, or 10,

but by good reviews in the

New York Times , and Time

magazine, and other journals,

and a number of

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes