Guilty by Suspicion (1991)

Watched ‘Guilty by Suspicion’ (1991) on Primevideo.

A film about Hollywood Blacklist, McCarthyism and the House Un-American Acivities Committee.

‘In 1947, the house committee on Un American activities began an investigation into communism in Hollywood. Ten men who refused to cooperate with the committee were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison terms after the Supreme Court refused to hear their case. Thereafter no one called to testify, either in public or in secret could work unless he satisfied the committee by naming names of others thought to be Communist’

David (De Niro), a director in Hollywood returns home to find that suddenly there has been a rising tide of McCarthyism and random people have been summoned by the committee on the basis of suspicion that they are communists or communist sympathizers or friends or relations of communist sympathizers.

….while the reality of most people is such as this.

‘In New York, this girl took me to a meeting. Some people thought we could help the folks in Russia. By sending canned goods and clothing. Russia was our ally. The Germans were attacking Stalingrad. We were both fighting the damn Nazis…’

David finds that he is being accused of association with Communists. He was named by a friend who was being investigated and was compelled to name other people.

He is approached by a lawyer, arranged by a producer to help him, and asked to appear before the investigating committee and name his friends and colleagues who attended some communist meetings years ago. 

‘Did you think I'd be a fucking stool pigeon?’so saying, David walks out; he will not ruin the lives of his near and dear ones, because attending some innocent meeting which many people did, years ago, meant nothing.

But suddenly, nobody wants to give him work. No producer wants to be associated with a communist sympathizer. Its a very serious matter, not easily ignored or tackled as he had believed.

His wife, Ruth (Annette Bening) though estranged, probably separated, supports him and stands by him in his crisis. When he vacates his house, she accommodates him in her home.

(Those, probably were the good old days before feminism turned the heads of women and made them capable of becoming completely hostile, vicious and venomous towards their once husband, that they had shared their bed and board with, losing all sympathy for the man, the human who had provided for her, and turning stone cold, exacting from him his pound of flesh even as he was bleeding)

One day, he is summoned by the committee. These last ten minutes of the movie showing investigative questioning by the committee were excellent. The best I have seen so far. 

Committee: ‘Witness attending a rally of the federation of atomic scientists at the Institute of technology, April 17, 1946. The topic of that rally was the elimination of the atomic bomb as a strategic weapon. You were there as a member of the Hollywood peace forum?’

David: ‘Yes’

Committee: ‘Statement made by the chief of the FBI J Edgar Hoover: the Hollywood peace forum cries for peace every chance it gets but has only one purpose: to disrupt public opinion on the matter of the atomic bomb long enough to give the Soviet Union a chance to complete it's preparation for war, I.e., their bomb’

David is asked to name people but he argues with them and questions them boldly, like a hero and refuses to give away names.

Thousands of lives were shattered and hundreds of careers destroyed by what came to be known as the Hollywood blacklist.

People like David and Ruth (his wife) faced terms in prison, suffered the loss of friends and possessions, and were denied the right to earn a living.

They were forced to live this way for almost 20 years. It wasn’t until 1970 that these men and women were vindicated for standing up - at the greatest personal cost - for their beliefs.

From my notes…

‘1951, house committee on Un American activities, LA, California’

‘She wouldn't swear to a loyalty oath, therefore it wasn't in my best interest to marry her’

‘83257 American battle casualties in the Korean War’

‘I'll have to stay away from mirrors all my life. I can't do that. I like looking at myself too much’

Says Joe, who'd rather go away to London than appear before the committee and give away names of innocent people and ruin their lives

Convicted Communist Spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sit on death row condemned to die in the electric chair for acts of espionage against the US 

‘Wait till they put your nuts in a vise’

Vise - any of various devices, usually having two jaws that may be brought together or separated by means of a screw, lever, or the like, used to hold an object firmly while work is being done on it

‘Don't forget, we've got a lien on your house’

Lien - the legal claim of one person upon the property of another person to secure the payment of a debt or the satisfaction of an obligation

‘I wouldn't let these guys run a tractor much less the country (politicians)

‘Those libraries ought to be burned. They are full of Communist filth’

#westerncinema