- 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 of Un-American Activities Committee after being considered suspects of committing Anti-American acts by preaching the Communism in their films and television shows.—Rodrigo Amaro
- The work of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), established in 1947, which resulted in the blacklisting of several people working in the US motion picture industry, most notoriously those coined as the Hollywood Ten, the blacklisting led by the Hollywood studios (who at the time controlled the majority of commercial film production in the US), is presented. That blacklisting was accompanied by imprisonment for some for contempt for their actions at committee hearings. The geopolitical situation globally in the previous decade or so is provided as context, then which saw the rise of Fascism, especially in hot spots such as Germany and Spain, resulting in a response of Communism to combat that Fascism. Certain Hollywood movies of the early 1940s reflected a pro-Soviet sentiment as an outcome. But the strong anti-Communist feeling hit Hollywood in the post-war era with labor disputes by certain movie craftspeople, especially members of the Screen Writers Guild, against the studios which were seen to be supported and fed by the Communist Party. HUAC divided the Hollywood community, not only by political lines, but by those who saw the necessity of the committee to quash Communism within the community during the start of this Cold War era versus those who viewed the mandate of the committee as being unconstitutional, with the Hollywood Ten, standing united, initially refusing to answer directly such questions as, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" at committee hearings to which they were subpoenaed. This documentary combines archive footage, including at committee hearings, with current day interviews with personalities on both sides of the hearing microphones.—Huggo
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