"Un-American Hollywood": Politics and Film in the Blacklist Era

The volume brings together sixteen original contributions to scholarship and debate relating to the film role of writers and directors associated with the Hollywood Left in the Blacklist Era and before. The book challenges previous notions of the 'Hollywood Ten', and other radical and liberal screenwriters, directors and actors, as lacking talent and any ability to introduce political themes into their work for the studios and for independent production companies. The book uses case studies to scruntinise the work of key individual practititioners, and examines numerous films in depth. The book also sheds light on the multifaceted intersections between politics, film and popular culture. Working against the received wisdom that Hollywood always manufactures a politically conservative product, all the contributors set out to show how certain films of the blacklist era can reveal the influence of progressive ideas and positions.