(There May be Spoilers)Freed after doing a six-month stretch in a federal prison for contempt of congress Hollywood writer/directer Herbert Biberman, Jeff Goldblum, as well as his actress wife Gale Sondergaard, Greta Scacchi,future in the world of the movies and theater in America is all but over.
Being the most out-spoken of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" Herbert was especially singled out by the US State Department with him having his passport revoked making it impossible for Herbert to even get work as a writer and director of movies in friendly countries overseas.
Herbert is in for one the biggest surprises of his life later in the movie when his friend and fellow Hollywood Ten, and fellow prisoner, film director Edward Dmytryk, Sean Chapman, became a friendly witness to the HUAC Committee and ratted out six fellow travelers, members or former members of the Communist party, with him being one of them.This just about sealed Herbert's coffin with no way from him to redeemed himself from his past activities and being branded a "Dirty Commie Rat" for the rest of his life.
It so happened that the year 1954 was a year of destiny for both Herbert Biberman and Edward Dmytryk with both of them directing a movie of high quality that stood the test of time over the years.Edward Dmytryk directed "The Caine Mutiny" for a major Hollywood studio with top stars like Humpret Bogart Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray. Herbert Biberman directed a film about the true story of a labor strike in Silver City New Mexico by low-paid and overworked Mexican zinc mill workers with a cast of non-actors but the very workers and their families as the stars.
Baseicaly a movie within a movie "One of the Hollywood Ten" zeros in on the efforts it took to film and later release the ground-breaking "Salt of the Earth" and how the FBI together with a bunch of paid-off local goons tried to prevent that film from ever seeing the light of day.
Herbert who was socially conscious all his life and joined the Communist party back in the 1930's. Not because Herbert had any love for Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union but believed, unrealistically, that Communisum was the only way that those hundreds of millions exploited by the big corporations can get their share of the wealth that they provided for them with their hard and back-breaking labor which they got paid next to nothing for.
The filming of the movie "Salt of the Earth" was constantly harassed by the US government with it's star Mexican peasant Rosaura Reweitas, Angela Molina, being kicked out of the US, on a bogus passport violation. This had Herbret film Rosaura's scenes in Mexico and had them smuggled back into the US to be edited into the movie. Rosaura final scene in the film is so touching simple and powerful that it ranks right up there with the final scene in "Grapes of Warth" with Henry Fonda.
It took until 1965,over ten years, for "Salt of the Earth" to be released in the United States. "salt of the Earth" showed the American people how the mass hysteria of the late 1940's and 50's Communist witch hunts did far more damage to the American way of life and US Consitution then what all the subversive activities of all the Soviet agents in the US combined could have done.
Being the most out-spoken of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" Herbert was especially singled out by the US State Department with him having his passport revoked making it impossible for Herbert to even get work as a writer and director of movies in friendly countries overseas.
Herbert is in for one the biggest surprises of his life later in the movie when his friend and fellow Hollywood Ten, and fellow prisoner, film director Edward Dmytryk, Sean Chapman, became a friendly witness to the HUAC Committee and ratted out six fellow travelers, members or former members of the Communist party, with him being one of them.This just about sealed Herbert's coffin with no way from him to redeemed himself from his past activities and being branded a "Dirty Commie Rat" for the rest of his life.
It so happened that the year 1954 was a year of destiny for both Herbert Biberman and Edward Dmytryk with both of them directing a movie of high quality that stood the test of time over the years.Edward Dmytryk directed "The Caine Mutiny" for a major Hollywood studio with top stars like Humpret Bogart Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray. Herbert Biberman directed a film about the true story of a labor strike in Silver City New Mexico by low-paid and overworked Mexican zinc mill workers with a cast of non-actors but the very workers and their families as the stars.
Baseicaly a movie within a movie "One of the Hollywood Ten" zeros in on the efforts it took to film and later release the ground-breaking "Salt of the Earth" and how the FBI together with a bunch of paid-off local goons tried to prevent that film from ever seeing the light of day.
Herbert who was socially conscious all his life and joined the Communist party back in the 1930's. Not because Herbert had any love for Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union but believed, unrealistically, that Communisum was the only way that those hundreds of millions exploited by the big corporations can get their share of the wealth that they provided for them with their hard and back-breaking labor which they got paid next to nothing for.
The filming of the movie "Salt of the Earth" was constantly harassed by the US government with it's star Mexican peasant Rosaura Reweitas, Angela Molina, being kicked out of the US, on a bogus passport violation. This had Herbret film Rosaura's scenes in Mexico and had them smuggled back into the US to be edited into the movie. Rosaura final scene in the film is so touching simple and powerful that it ranks right up there with the final scene in "Grapes of Warth" with Henry Fonda.
It took until 1965,over ten years, for "Salt of the Earth" to be released in the United States. "salt of the Earth" showed the American people how the mass hysteria of the late 1940's and 50's Communist witch hunts did far more damage to the American way of life and US Consitution then what all the subversive activities of all the Soviet agents in the US combined could have done.