Red Hollywood Page #9

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exhibitors said they

wanted to play the picture,

and then one by one they were

pressured by the majors,

"You play that picture

and you'll never

get another RKO picture."

"You play

that picture, you'll never get

another MGM picture."

And one by one,

they backed out.

The original intent when we

formed the company was

to make a number of films

using the talents of

blacklisted people.

But we lost our shirts on

Salt of the Earth and that was

the end of

that noble experiment.

In a way, it's the grandfather

of independent filmmaking

in the United States.

I mean, there've been a lot

of independent films since,

but we didn't make them.

NARRATOR:
During the war,

only one Hollywood film

alluded to the Holocaust.

Communist screenwriter

Lester Cole

could only guess at what was

happening to the Polish Jews

and how they

might have responded.

Send them over there.

Hey, you again?

He's going to quiet them.

Let him speak.

This is our last journey.

It doesn't matter

if it's long or short.

For centuries we have

sought only peace.

We have

submitted to many degradations

believing that

we would achieve

justice through reason.

We have tried to take our

place honestly, decently

alongside all mankind,

to help make a better world,

a world in which all men

would live as free neighbors.

We have hoped, and prayed,

but now we see that

hope was not enough!

What good has

it done to submit?

We have submitted too long!

If we want

equality and justice,

we must take our

place alongside all

other oppressed peoples.

We haven't much time left.

By our actions

we will be remembered.

This is our last free choice,

our moment in history.

And I say to you, let us

choose to fight. Here!

Now!

Drag them in!

(GUN FIRING)

(PEOPLE SCREAMING)

NARRATOR:
Even ordinary

anti-Semitism was

an almost taboo subject.

In 1945, this didactic short

film could pass as courageous.

Somebody in for a licking?

BOY:
You bet,

we're going to smear him!

Yeah, but 10 against one?

That's not very fair.

(CHILDREN SCREAMING)

Hold on!

What's it all about?

BOY:
None of your business.

Scared to tell me?

No, I'm not a-scared.

I'll fight you, even.

(CHUCKLES)

Not if I can help it.

I just want to know

why the gang war?

BOY:
We don't like him.

We don't want him

in our neighborhood

or going to our school.

I've been living

here as long as you!

What's he got?

Small pox or something?

We don't like his religion.

His religion?

Look mister, he's a dirty...

Now hold on!

FRANK SINATRA:
Come here.

(FOOTSTEPS HEARD)

SINATRA:
Now you

all stand here.

And no hissing allowed.

What is America to me?

A name

A map or a flag I see

A certain word

Democracy

What is America to me?

The house I live in

A plot of Earth, a street

The grocer

and the butcher

And the people that I meet

The children

in the playground

The faces that I see

All races and religions

That's America to me

NARRATOR:
It was time

to acknowledge that America

had a race problem,

and Hollywood Communists

would take the lead.

Yeah, when I get

back to El Centro

I'll probably find some

Mexican's got my job.

Quiet!

Sorry, Juan.

You're a Mexican, but...

But you're different. You're

one of the guys in B-Company.

No, I'm not different, Joe.

I'm just a Mexican,

like a lot of

other Mexicans who fought.

NARRATOR:
However, in

Home of the Brave,

Carl Foreman reformulated the

social problem of racism

as a neurotic

condition that touched

whites and blacks equally,

a psychological malady

that could be cured

by personal therapy.

You see the whole point

of this, Peter?

You've been thinking

that you had some

special kind of guilt.

But you've got

to realize something.

You're the same

as anybody else.

You're no different, Peter.

No different at all.

I'm colored.

There, that sensitivity!

That's the disease you've got.

It was there before anything

happened on that island.

It started way back.

It's not your fault,

you didn't ask for it.

It's a legacy.

A hundred and fifty

years of slavery,

of second-class citizenship,

of being different.

You had that feeling

of difference pounded into you

when you were a child,

and being a child you turned

it into a feeling of guilt.

You always had

that guilt inside you.

That's why it was so easy

for you to feel guilty

about Finch.

You understand?

I think so.

Now get this straight.

The very same people

who make the cracks,

who try to make you

feel different,

do it because down deep,

underneath, they feel insecure

and unhappy, too.

They need a scapegoat,

somebody they can despise

so they can feel strong.

Believe me, they need help

as much as you do.

Maybe more.

Gee, Doc.

That's why you've got

to be cured. That's why!

So when people make cracks,

try to make you

feel different,

you've a right to be angry,

but you have no right

to be ashamed.

Do you hear me?

NARRATOR:
Today the Negro

films of the late '40s

seem well meaning, but naive.

In 1950, Communist critic

V.J. Jerome claimed

that these films worked

to deny the very existence

of a Negro problem.

He did not spare

the work of Communist writers.

Ben Maddow's adaptation

of Intruder In The Dust

was as pernicious

as Faulkner's novel.

Knock it off again, Sheriff.

Take off his head next time.

All right, Lucas,

come on.

NARRATOR:
Lucas Beauchamp,

a proud aristocrat

among blacks,

living a secluded life

on his own land,

has been falsely accused

of killing a white man.

He will be rescued from

a typically redneck lynch mob

by a brave young boy

and his lawyer uncle.

According to Jerome,

this story denies the reality

of lynching.

While the lynch mobs

may be composed

of poor whites,

they are organized

and protected

by the aristocrats

who control local

politics in the South.

You, young man.

Tell your uncle

I wants to see him.

Want to see who?

Lawyer Stevens, John Stevens.

Wants to see a lawyer!

A lawyer? He ain't even going

to need an undertaker.

They're running away.

It's more than that.

No, that's all.

There's nothing left for them

to do but admit they're wrong.

So they're running away.

It's worse than that.

CHICK:
Well, they're running.

JOHN:
They're running away

from themselves.

You see, we were in trouble,

not Lucas Beauchamp.

It's all right, Chick.

Is it?

It will be all right,

so long as some of us,

or even so long

as one of us,

some one of us

doesn't run away.

NARRATOR:
In other words,

Jerome concluded,

lynchings are the problem

of a few right-thinking,

educated, better-class whites.

Not the Negroes'

problem at all.

They just get lynched.

I thought he was all wet then.

I still think he is all wet.

I think they are just

cheap shots at Hollywood.

I mean...

And... And no recognition

at all that in terms of

all the films

that had proceeded it...

Where was there

a proud black?

In the time and place

of the story,

I wouldn't expect the hero

to be rescued

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