Hollywood and the Reds: HUAC & McCarthyism
by Max_in_Vienna | created - 15 Feb 2015 | updated - 01 Apr 2015 | PublicThe House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. It was originally created in 1938 to uncover citizens with Nazi ties within the United States. However, it has become better known for its role in investigating alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having ties to Communism.
(Quoted from Wikipedia http://goo.gl/CLQJZg, accents are mine)
Included in this list are films directly relating to the HUAC blacklists, those where this theme plays a meaningful role as well as those films that may be considered allegorical. The following titles are not part of the list but may be added:
- Silver Lode (1954) (1954)
- Rear Window (1954) (1954)
- Johnny Guitar (1954) (1954)
- Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (1955)
- Planet of the Apes (1968) (1968)
- Pleasantville (1998) (1998)
Note: this list is alphabetical.
Related lists:
- Hollywood and the Reds: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls076599723/Post-WW II
Other lists:
- http://www.imdb.com/list/ls003041186/Cold War Movies
- http://www.imdb.com/list/ls009156355/The 20 best films on cold war
- http://www.imdb.com/list/ls003517553/Cold War in films
Sources:
- Wikipedia: http://goo.gl/XAoM9m
- Harvard Film Archive - "Cold War Paranoia": http://goo.gl/uACQSw
- Illinois.edu - "The Hollywood Blacklist": http://goo.gl/XNU3Ph
- Washington.edu - "The All-Powers Project" : http://goo.gl/fDkGFW
On YouTube:
- "Victims of Hollywood's Blacklist": http://goo.gl/mPME2b
- "The Hollywood Ten" (1950): http://goo.gl/7Ls0uL
- "The Hollywood Blacklist: 1947-1960": http://goo.gl/WieTa3
- "Committee On Un-American Activities": http://goo.gl/an3DSw
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
PG | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History
Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels
Votes: 101,317 | Gross: $31.56M
2. The Hollywood Ten (1950)
15 min | Documentary, Short, History
A brief look at The Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors charged of contempt of court after challenging the House of Anti-American Activities and their controversial and ... See full summary »
Director: John Berry | Stars: J. Parnell Thomas, Albert Maltz, Lester Cole, Samuel Ornitz
Votes: 264
3. I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. (1951)
Not Rated | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In Pittsburgh, PA, an F.B.I. agent works to undermine the Communist party, but his brothers and his teenage son think he's a real Red.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Frank Lovejoy, Dorothy Hart, Philip Carey, James Millican
Votes: 967
4. The Front (1976)
PG | 95 min | Drama
In 1953, a cashier poses as a writer for blacklisted talents to submit their work through, but the injustice around him pushes him to take a stand.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, Michael Murphy
Votes: 9,677
5. Guilty by Suspicion (1991)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama
Returning to Hollywood 1951 after working in France, a movie director meets McCarthyism head-on.
Director: Irwin Winkler | Stars: Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig
Votes: 9,577 | Gross: $9.48M
6. Storm Center (1956)
Approved | 85 min | Drama
During the 1950s, a small-town librarian is shunned by the locals after she refuses the City Council's request to remove a book on Communism from the library's shelves.
Director: Daniel Taradash | Stars: Bette Davis, Brian Keith, Kim Hunter, Paul Kelly
Votes: 1,653
7. A King in New York (1957)
G | 105 min | Comedy, Drama
A recently-deposed European monarch seeks shelter in New York City, where he becomes an accidental television celebrity and is later wrongly accused of being a Communist.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Maxine Audley, Jerry Desmonde, Oliver Johnston
Votes: 8,883
8. Insignificance (1985)
R | 109 min | Comedy
Four 1950s icons meet in the same hotel room and two of them discover more in common between them than they ever anticipated.
Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: Gary Busey, Tony Curtis, Theresa Russell, Michael Emil
Votes: 3,889
9. One of the Hollywood Ten (2000)
Not Rated | 109 min | Drama
Herbert Biberman struggles as a Hollywood writer and director blacklisted as one of The Hollywood Ten in the 1950s.
Director: Karl Francis | Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Greta Scacchi, Ángela Molina, Christopher Fulford
Votes: 379
10. High Noon (1952)
PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 110,219 | Gross: $9.45M
11. The Hoaxters (1952)
Approved | 36 min | Short, Documentary
So called snake oil salesmen at carnivals are often used as the symbols of hoaxters. There are much more globally sinister hoaxters in the form of world leaders of totalitarian regimes, ... See full summary »
Stars: Marilyn Erskine, Howard Keel, George Murphy, Walter Pidgeon
Votes: 201
12. Viva Zapata! (1952)
Approved | 113 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who led a rebellion against the corrupt, oppressive dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz in the early 20th century.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Jean Peters, Anthony Quinn, Joseph Wiseman
Votes: 12,467
13. On the Waterfront (1954)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Votes: 164,993 | Gross: $9.60M
14. Salt of the Earth (1954)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, History
Mexican workers at a zinc mine call a general strike. It is only through the solidarity of the workers, and importantly the indomitable resolve of their wives, mothers, and daughters, that they eventually triumph.
Director: Herbert J. Biberman | Stars: Juan Chacón, Rosaura Revueltas, Will Geer, David Bauer
Votes: 4,045
15. Hollywood on Trial (1976)
Not Rated | 105 min | Documentary
The documentary analyzes a dark period in Hollywood's history due to the Red Scare of the 1940's and 1950's, when actors, writers and directors were persecuted and investigated by the House... See full summary »
Director: David Helpern | Stars: Walter Bernstein, Alvah Bessie, Lester Cole, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 254
16. Point of Order! (1964)
Not Rated | 97 min | Documentary
An unfiltered, unflinching document of the notorious 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, compiled entirely from raw TV footage (with no narration, music, or added scenes).
Director: Emile de Antonio | Stars: John G. Adams, Roy M. Cohn, Ray Jenkins, Joseph McCarthy
Votes: 516
17. Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist (1987 TV Movie)
60 min | Documentary
The long-term effects of the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation into Hollywood's Communist activities in the 1940s and 1950s.
Director: Judy Chaikin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Betty Garrett, Sylvia Jarrico, Evelyn Keyes
Votes: 43
18. Tail Gunner Joe (1977 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 145 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatization of the life of Joe McCarthy, the alcoholic senator from Wisconsin whose tactics of accusing prominent people of Communist sympathies were initially designed to give him a ... See full summary »
Director: Jud Taylor | Stars: Peter Boyle, John Forsythe, Heather Menzies-Urich, Burgess Meredith
Votes: 199
19. Citizen Cohn (1992 TV Movie)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama
As lawyer and power broker Roy Cohn lies dying of AIDS in a private hospital room, ghosts from his past visit him as he reflects on his life and loves.
Director: Frank Pierson | Stars: James Woods, Joe Don Baker, Joseph Bologna, Ed Flanders
Votes: 1,517
20. Murrow (1986 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 114 min | Biography, Drama
Follow legendary news reporter/commentator from his radio broadcasts from the rooftops of London during the Blitz to his TV documentary series "See It Now" and his confrontations with the ... See full summary »
Director: Jack Gold | Stars: Daniel J. Travanti, Stephen Churchett, David Suchet, Robert Vaughn
Votes: 141
22. The House on Carroll Street (1988)
PG | 101 min | Thriller
In 1950s America, an FBI agent and a blacklist victim uncover a plot to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the country.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Kelly McGillis, Jeff Daniels, Mandy Patinkin, Jessica Tandy
Votes: 2,802 | Gross: $0.46M
23. Marathon Man (1976)
R | 125 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After the shocking murder of his older brother, a New York history student finds himself inexplicably hounded by shadowy government agents on the trail of a Nazi war criminal who is trying to retrieve smuggled diamonds.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane
Votes: 70,248 | Gross: $21.71M
24. The Majestic (2001)
PG | 152 min | Drama, Romance
In 1951, a blacklisted Hollywood writer gets into a car accident, loses his memory and settles down in a small town where he is mistaken for a long-lost son.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 57,678 | Gross: $27.81M
25. The Way We Were (1973)
PG | 118 min | Drama, Romance
During post-WWII McCarthyism, a diametrically opposed couple come together only to find out that genuine friendship and physical attraction is not enough to overcome fundamental societal beliefs.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman, Lois Chiles
Votes: 27,484
26. The Crucible (1996)
PG-13 | 124 min | Drama, History
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Director: Nicholas Hytner | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield, Joan Allen
Votes: 40,195 | Gross: $7.34M
27. Inherit the Wind (1960)
Passed | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
Based on a real-life case in 1925; two great lawyers argue the case for, and against, a Tennessee science teacher accused of the crime of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Dick York
Votes: 32,788
28. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Approved | 80 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan
Votes: 54,786
29. The Steel Helmet (1951)
Approved | 85 min | Action, Drama, War
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards
Votes: 4,737
Tell Your Friends