Cold War Cinema

Join hosts Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones as they discuss the celebrated socially conscious Hollywood director,  Martin Ritt (1914–1990). Ritt is known for a number of critically aclaimed movies, among them Paris Blues (1961), Hud (1963), and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965). In this episode, we focus on four of Ritt's explicitly pro-worker films:  The Molly Maguires  (1970...

Join us for our first ever interview with the Australian writer and scholar, Andrew Nette, who, along with the film historian Samm Deighan, co-edited the new book Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 , published by PM Press.   Nette is an author of fiction and nonfiction. He is coeditor of three previous books for PM Press,...

Join hosts Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones as they discuss Herbert J. Biberman's iconic independent masterpiece Salt of the Earth (1954). The film is based on the real-life Empire Zinc strike in 1951 in Grant County, New Mexico, and was self-financed and made entirely outside the studio system using mostly non-professional actors, many of them actual miners playing versions of thems...

Join hosts Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones as they discuss Irving Pichel's 1950 crime thriller Quicksand , starring Mickey Rooney, Peter Lorre, Jeanne Cagney, and Barbara Bates. The film's plot revolves around Rooney's character making one bad decision after another, shattering his moral compass along the way. The implicit message, heavy-handed in its delivery, is that poverty breed...

Join hosts Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones as they discuss Michael Gordon's 1951 drama I Can Get It for You Wholesale , a film that explores the cutthroat fashion industry in New York City's garment district. It was written by Abraham Polonsky and Vera Caspary and stars Susan Hayward, Dan Dailey, and George Sanders. Gordon and Polonsky were blacklisted during the infamous HUAC anti-...

This episode is a slight departure for this season—and we had fun with it. Rather than taking on a film directed by a blacklisted director, as usual, we're discussing a groundbreaking video essay about blacklisted directors. Thom Andersen's Red Hollywood (1996) discusses several of the directors and films we've discuss so far on the podcast. Andersen's goal in the film is to curate a list of overl...

Join hosts Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas, and Tim Jones as they discuss Abraham Polonsky 's debut film Force of Evil , a 1948 crime picture starring John Garfield, Beatrice Pearson, and Thomas Gomez. Force of Evil is one of thirteen movies the critic and filmmaker Thom Andersen identifies as film gris , or socially conscious crime cinema made from 1947 to 1951, during the height of the notorious...

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Robert Rossen's Body and Soul , a 1947 boxing film that critic Thom Andersen categorizes as film gris , or socially conscious crime cinema during the film noir years (1940s through the 1950s). Rossen testified at a HUAC hearing in 1951, pleaded the Fifth Amendment, and was  blacklisted . Two years later, he testified again and this time he named 5...

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss John Berry 's He Ran All the Way , a 1951 crime drama in the film noir and film gris  traditions. The film stars John Garfield , who was shortly thereafter blacklisted and died of a heart attack at age 39. The screenplay is written by Hugo Butler and Dalton Trumbo , both blacklisted, as was the director, John Berry.  We also discuss Berry's short...

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Bernard Vorhaus's So Young, So Bad , a 1950 drama about a girls' reform school. The film dares to imagine therapy instead of punishment as a tool to "cure" antisocial behavior. Vorhaus was blacklisted in 1951 after his name was mentioned during the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings. He subsequently relocated to Englan...

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Cy Endfield's Try and Get Me! , also know as The Sound of Fury , a 1950 crime film that critic Thom Andersen includes on his list of  film gris movies, o r socially conscious crime cinema during the film noir years (1940s through the 1950s). Endfield was blacklisted in 1951 after his name was mentioned during the infamous House Un-American Activit...

Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Jules Dassin's 1950 crime film Night and the City , a celebrated film noir picture (and film gris ) shot on location in London. Like all of the directors discussed this season, Dassin was blacklisted during the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings. The director subsequently relocated to Paris, where he made his groundbre...

  Join hosts Jason, Anthony, and Tim as they discuss Joseph Losey's 1950 crime film The Lawless, an underseen and somewhat uneven example of what the filmmaker and critic Thom Andersen calls film gris, o r socially conscious crime cinema during the film noir years (1940s through the 1950s). Losey was blacklisted in 1952, after his name was mentioned during the infamous House Un-American Activities...