Radical Hollywood

The Untold Story Behind America's Favorite Movies

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by Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner

New Press

Due/Published August 2003, 480 pages, paper

ISBN 1565848195

New in paper (S03)

This is a comprehensive account of the personal and political lives of the left-wing screenwriters, directors, and actors behind Hollywood's Golden Age. Tracing Hollywood's future blacklistees and the hundreds of films they wrote or directed from the dawn of sound movies to the early 1950s, Radical Hollywood follows the political and personal lives of the activists along with the often-decisive impact of their work on American film. A highly readable, anecdotal history, featuring an insert of classic film stills, , Radical Hollywood describes the story-behind-the-story of such famous films as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Casablanca, and Woman of the Year, along with such campy items as The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, and Kiss the Blood off My Hands. Genres like crime and women's films, family cinema, war, animation and, above all, film noir are reconsidered here, with new evidence drawn from interviews and recent archival breakthroughs. 

Films discussed include: The Adventures of Captain Marvel; The Big Clock; Body and Soul; Back Door to Heaven; Blues in the Night ; Cabin in the Sky; Caged; Casablanca; Champion; Deadline at Dawn; Destry Rides Again; The Devil-Doll; Diplomaniacs; Dynamite; Frankenstein; G. I. Joe; Give Us This Day; Gun Crazy; High Noon; Hitler's Children; Hold That Ghost; Honky Tonk; Keeper of the Flame; Kiss the Blood off My Hands; Kitty Foyle; Lassie, Come Home; The Lawless; Life with Father; The Long Night; The Maltese Falcon; The Man Who Reclaimed His Head; Marked Woman; Mayor of Hell; Meet the People; Mission to Moscow; Monsieur Verdoux; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; None but the Lonely Heart; Our Vines Have Tender Grapes; Phantom Lady; The Philadelphia Story; A Place in the Sun; The President's Mystery; Pride of the Marines; The Public Enemy; Ruthless; The Sea Hawk; Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror; Stella Dallas; Stormy Weather; The Story of G.I. Joe; Talk of the Town; Theodora Goes Wild; The Thin Man; Thirty Seconds over Tokyo; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Watch on the Rhine; The Wizard of Oz; Woman of the Year