Down With... Communists

Words have power.

Words can define a generation (Make love, not war) or they can signal a movement (I have a dream). Words can be fun (May the Force be with you) or they can be terrifying (Rivers of blood). They can incite (Lock Her Up) and they can inspire (Ich bin ein Berliner).

Sometimes, words can destroy lives.

Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been...

From 1947 onwards, an ever-expanding parade of Hollywood figures were summoned to appear before the so-called House Un-American Activities Committee. The interrogation always began with the same question:

"Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"

In Norse mythology, the Valkyries were a group of warrior women who appeared before mighty warriors just before they fell in battle. If you ever saw a Valkyrie, you knew that your life was over.

In the 1950s, if you heard the words "Are you now, or have you ever been..." you knew that your career was over.

The House Un-American Activities Committee (or HUAC to its enemies) was ostensibly assembled to root out Communist infiltration in the entertainment industry. Never mind the trivial point that the vast majority of "witnesses" summoned before the committee weren't actually Communists, or the equally trivial point that being a Communist wasn't actually illegal in the US; HUAC devoted itself to this crusade with dogged determination and efficiency.

The first "unfriendly" witnesses to appear (the so-called Hollywood Ten) tried to assert their rights under the First Amendment. They pointed out (quite correctly) that the US Constitution granted them the freedom to follow any political beliefs they chose without fear of persecution. They also pointed out (equally correctly) that the Committee was in violation of the First Amendment merely by asking the question.

Predictably, they were charged with Contempt of Congress and issued with prison sentences. 

This had in fact been their plan: they wanted to be charged so that they could appeal their convictions to the US Supreme Court in order to have the entire investigation ruled Unconstitutional. Their legal counsel had advised them that the Supreme Court would certainly overturn their convictions, and that would be the end of the House Un-American Activities Committee. 

It was a good plan.

Unfortunately for them, for the rest of Hollywood, and for the psyche of the Nation, two of the liberal judges on the Supreme Court died before their appeal could be heard. The newly conservative Court refused to consider their appeal, all ten defendants went to prison, and HUAC was free to continue its Witch-Hunt.

In the years that followed, anyone faced with that deadly question knew that there was essentially no escape. 

If you cited your First Amendment rights (as The Ten had tried to do) you would be charged with Contempt of Congress. (As Dalton Trumbo said later, that was perfectly fair. He had complete contempt for this particular Congress.)

If you said "No," you were not a Communist, you could be charged with perjury. The Committee did not need "proof" of your Communist Party membership; they just needed your signature on the wrong petition, or a picture of you at the wrong rally, or your name on the wrong guest list. It was very, very easy to be a Communist in the eyes of HUAC.

If you cited your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination then it was assumed that you were hiding your guilt, and your career was over.

If you said "Yes," you were a Communist, your career was over, and you were then asked to name other Communists - who would then be summoned before the Committee and put through the same ordeal.

Our next film (on Thursday the 2nd of February) deals emphatically with this extremely dark period of American history.

Guilty By Suspicion follows the fortunes of  David Merrill, a fictional Hollywood director who finds himself under investigation by HUAC. 

Initially dismissive of the committee, he finds that his hitherto successful career has been brought to a complete standstill. As his life unravels, he must make an impossible decision. Will he testify as a friendly witness and "denounce" his friends and colleagues, or will he refuse to cooperate and commit professional suicide?

The character of David Merrill is partially based on the real-life Hollywood director John Berry, whose career was destroyed by the blacklist.

(John Berry was born in The Bronx; the son of Polish and Romanian immigrants. He is played by Robert De Niro.)

Although most of the characters in Guilty by Association are fictional, they are closely (and often obviously) based on real people. Martin Scorsese cameos as the director "Joe Lesser" who flees to England to escape from the Committee - as the director Joseph Losey did in real life.

Chicago-born Sam Wannamaker (who plays a studio attorney) had also fled to England to escape the Blacklist, which is why his daughter Zoë was raised over here.

Guilty By Association takes great pains to re-create a very dark and unpleasant period of American history, and it does not exaggerate. If anything, the actual committee scenes have been toned down when compared to the transcripts and film footage of the actual HUAC proceedings.

We will be screening Guilty By Association at 7.30 on Thursday, the 2nd of February at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.