Hollywood Divided
The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist
by Kevin Brianton
University Press of Kentucky
October 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 9780813168920
174 pages
Amazon - Barnes and Noble - Powell's
On October 22, 1950, more than 500 directors met at the Beverly Hills Hotel for a Screen Directors Guild meeting. The topic on hand: Cecil B. DeMille's call for the dismissal of SDG's president Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Many big-name directors including John Huston, John Ford, Rouben Mamoulian and many others would deliver speeches either for or against the recall. This meeting occurred during the thick of the Hollywood backlist era and quotes from the speeches would live on for decades sometimes morphing into different variations. It represented what Kevin Brianton, author of Hollywood Divided, calls "one of the bitterest chapters in American cinema history."
It's easy for us to put the people involved in this meeting into two distinct camps: liberals and conservatives. And depending on your political views these two camps would also carry the label of good people and bad people. It's true that liberals were eyed as potentially dangerous because they were most likely to have ties to Communism. And it's also true that conservatives led the charge to seek and oust industry members who they thought were clearly Communist. However, as Brianton explores in his book, the divide between liberals and conservatives wasn't always very clear. Some directors attending the meeting identified as Republican yet made very liberal movies. Others considered liberal sometimes leaned conservative. On DeMille, Brianton explains "it would seem that his rigid conservative ideology drove him one direction, while his personal afflictions tugged him another way." In this book, Brianton breaks down the different motivations and ideologies of many of the top directors involved in this infamous SDG meeting and we discover that not everyone, even the two big players in all of this DeMille and Mankiewicz were as clear cut in their two political camps as most people like to think.
Brianton's book is incredibly detailed. Everything you could possibly want to know about SDG's 1950 meeting can be found within its pages. Its meticulously researched and told in a very unbiased way. The first part of the book explores the events that lead up to the meeting. The second part breaks down almost minute by minute the events of the gathering. And the third part explores the meeting's legacy and the myths that came out of the oral history of that important moment in film history.
I was interested in learning about DeMille's background and how he lead the charge of many conservative movements in the industry even as early as WWI. Directors Mankiewicz and Ford and their motivations and actions are explored closely as well. I'd love to read some additional books exploring the Hollywood Blacklist. Actor Robert Vaughn wrote a book called Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting which I have my eye on. If anyone were to write a book about how films before, during and after the blacklist era both had an effect on the blacklist and were affected by it, that would be a book I'd pick up immediately. If anything this slim volume on one aspect of a dark moment in Hollywood history whet my appetite for more reading.
If you're researching the Hollywood blacklist, Kevin Brianton's Hollywood Divided is a invaluable resource. If you're looking for an overall history of this era, this book would only be a supplement to your reading but still worth your time.
Thank you to University Press of Kentucky for sending me a copy of this book to review.
Monday, May 22, 2017
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (8)
Finally it's getting warm here in New England. For me, warmer weather means a lot more time spent outdoors reading. I love sitting on my front porch with a tall glass of iced tea and a good book.
My summer reading challenge will be announced soon. In the meantime, here is a list of new classic film books. Are you new to my list? Here are the details. Publication dates range from May to September 2017 and these dates are subject to change. Books include biographies, memoirs, scholarly texts, coffee table books and more from a variety of publishers. Links lead either to Goodreads or to shopping pages where you can buy the book directly. Using my buy links helps support this site. Thank you!
by Peter Turner
Picador
176 pages – May 2017
by Brian Solomon
Applause Theatre & Cinema Books
400 pages – May 2017
Hollywood Hellraisers
The Wild Lives and Fast Times of Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty, and Jack Nicholson
Skyhorse Publishing
336 pages – May 2017
by Therese Grisham, Julie Grossman
Rutgers University Press
264 pages – May 2017
by Editors of the Official John Wayne Magazine
Media Lab Books
9781942556589
156 pages – May 2017
by Kirk Douglas and Anne Douglas
Running Press
221 pages – May 2017
by Gabriel Hershman
The History Press
288 pages – May 2017
The Life and Career of Ruby Keeler
by Ed Harbur
BearManor Media
May 2017
by Thomas S. Hischak
Rowman & Littlefield
368 pages – June 2017
Dance and the African Diaspora
by Joanna Dee Das
Oxford University Press
288 pages – June 2017
by Rob Backer
Applause Theatre & Cinema Books
360 pages – June 2017
Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper, and the Making of a Classic
by Richard Sandomir
Hachette Books
304 pages – June 2017
The Salvation of an American Icon
by Greg Laurie & Marshall Terrill
American Icon Press
220 pages – June 2017
by Kendra Bean & Anthony Uzarowski
Running Press
272 pages – July 2017
Essays on Frontier Fixtures of the American Western
McFarland
267 pages – July 2017
by Michael Owen
Chicago Review Press
336 pages – July 2017
by Tim Hanley
Chicago Review Press
256 pages – July 2017
by Guy Barefoot
Wallflower Press
144 pages – July 2017
Hans Hamer
208 pages – July 2017
The Past, Present And Future Of Women Working In Film
Alicia Malone
Mango
236 pages – August 2017
David Thomson
Yale University Press
232 pages – August 2017
Stefan Solomon
University of Georgia Press
320 pages – August 2017
Jeremy Black
Rowman and Littlefield
208 pages – August 2017
by Douglass K. Daniel
University Press of Kentucky
400 pages – September 2017
by Eugenia Paulicelli, Drake Stutesman, Louise Wallenberg
Indiana University
304 pages – September 2017
by Susan Pack
Taschen
520 pages – September 2017
Life Lessons From the Fairest Lady of All
by Victoria Loustalot
Lyons Press
208 pages – September 2017
by Kathryn Sermak and Danelle Morton
Hachette Books
304 pages – September 2017
by Cindy De La Hoz
Running Press
288 pages – September 2017
Here are my previous round-ups :
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (1)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (2)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (3)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (4)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (5)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (6)
New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (7)
Monday, May 15, 2017
The Beguiled (1971)
Union soldier John "McB" (Clint Eastwood) finds himself injured in Confederate territory. A young girl named Amy (Pamelyn Ferdin), is out in the forest picking mushrooms and stumbles upon him. He's near death and Amy takes pity on him and brings him back to her all girls school. The women are reluctant to help an enemy soldier but take him in anyways. At first their intent is restore his injured leg, bring him back to full health and turn him into the Confederate Army. But it's been a long war and they've been lonely. And it's nice having a handsome man around especially one as vulnerable as John. He takes advantage of their situation and starts seducing three of the women. The headmistress Martha (Geraldine Page) carries a dark secret with her and sees a dalliance with John as a way to reignite old passions. Then there is the modest Edwina (Elizabeth Hartman) who tends to John's leg and dreams of a romantic life outside the school. And then there is the more sexually aware Carol (Jo Ann Harris) who is not conflicted by her desires for an affair with the mysterious soldier and by the need to turn him into the local Confederates. Once the women discover John's true nature they turn on him. What follows is a downward spiral into what seems more like a fever dream than reality.
The Beguiled (1971) was directed by Don Siegel, produced by Clint Eastwood's production company Malpaso and distributed by Universal. It's based on Thomas Cullinan's novel published in 1966. After the movie was released Cullinan followed with two additional novels The Besieged and The Bedeviled, both Confederate Civil War era stories. The film was poorly marketed as another Eastwood action film when it was really a psychological drama. As a result it did poorly at the box office.
This film came to my attention when I heard of Sofia Coppola's new adaptation The Beguiled (2017) which releases next month. Intrigued by the film's concept, I went back to the original. And I've always been curious about Elizabeth Hartman who stars in one of my all-time favorite movies A Patch of Blue (1965) and this was a good excuse to watch more of her work.
The Beguiled is a mesmerizing movie. It's dark and unrelenting. It's fascinating to see how the dynamics of relationships change during war time. The film has some great performances by Geraldine Page and Clint Eastwood in particular. There is a feverish quality to the movie that heightens the psychological drama.
Geraldine Page and Clint Eastwood in The Beguiled (1971) |
The film tests the waters of propriety in the way that many films did in the 1970s. Eastwood kisses the young Ferdin in a scene that is uncomfortable to watch. Some will see it as a kiss to keep her quiet as the Confederate soldiers march by. Others will see it as an unnecessary moment of inappropriate sexuality. There is also the them of inc-st in the movie. Martha, played by Geraldine Page, has a passionate and sexual affair with her brother who at the time of the story is missing in action and presumed dead. John discovers her secret and the audience is clued in to this with several flashback scenes. I'm curious to see if the new adaptation incorporates these scenes from the original. I also wonder if they'll do away with the slave character Hallie played by Mae Mercer. She's a strong female character who fights back but depiction of slaves on film is always problematic territory.
If you're at all interested in seeing Sofia Coppola's version of The Beguiled, I highly encourage you to try the original too. I rented the film from DVD Netflix and it's currently available on DVD and Blu-Ray. Below are the trailers for the 1971 and 2017 versions.
Listen to me discuss The Beguiled (1971) on the Our Friends Said They'd Listen podcast.
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