The Left Side of the Screen

In examining the careers of communist and liberal actors, screenwriters, playwrights, and directors in Hollywood from the late 1920s to the present, this book uses studio and PCA correspondence, FBI files, film and theater reviews, and other sources to reveal how all of these artists were concerned with and active in the cinema of social protest. It covers the works of those liberal stars and directors who collaborated with communist artists in New York and Hollywood, including John Garfield, Canada Lee, Frances Farmer, Paul Robeson, James Edwards, and Paul Muni; liberal filmmakers like Philip Dunne; and ex-communists (and HUAC-friendly witnesses) like Elia Kazan, Edward Dmytryk, and Robert Rossen. It also looks at the activities of the Communist Party in Hollywood and the far-reaching influence of the Soviet Union.

Writer, actor and comedian Bob Herzberg is the author of scholarly books and Western novels. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Bob Herzberg
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 304
Bibliographic Info: 59 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4456-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5769-4
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      ix

Introduction      1

I. In the Red (1929–1936)      7

II. The Old Left Hook (1937–1941)      63

III. Bodyguard of Lies (1942–1945)      113

IV. A Revolution from Above (1946–1951)      173

V. Breaking Eggs (1952–1958)      234

VI. Containment (1959–2009)      268

Chapter Notes      279

Bibliography      285

Index      289