A revealing and affectionate account of the personal and political lives of the left-wing screenwriters, directors, and actors behind Hollywood's Golden Age. The first comprehensive book about 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 traces the political and personal lives of the activists along with the often-decisive impact of their work upon American film's Golden Age.

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, alongside 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 fresh evidence drawn from interviews and recent archival breakthroughs. A long-awaited rediscovery of an overlooked intellectual-artistic milieu, Radical Hollywood will interest all film-lovers and devotees of political culture. 16 pages b/w photographs.

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

"[T]his groundbreaking account of leftist influence in Hollywood from the 1920s to the '50s is an intelligent, well argued, and absorbing examination of how politics and art can make startling and often strange bedfellows....This is one of the few complete and cohesive histories of the history of progressives in Hollywood and is an important contribution to the literature of film and politics." Publishers Weekly

"Terrific material on Hollywood resisters, marred by imprecision and excess....So crammed that it belies navigation and so committed to its cause that it erodes believability: a text that provides ample background but limited enjoyment." Kirkus Reviews

"Owing to the lack of first-person narratives, the authors struggle but are unable to bring this era to life. Also, the discussion of films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Casablanca is superficial, rarely revealing more than previous evaluations." Library Journal

Outfitted in a well-researched, academic garb, this investigation of the Hollywood people named in the congressional hearings during the late 1940s and early 1950s as "subversive," digs up extensive biographical information about several blacklisted screenwriters whose tarnished careers have received little previous attention, such as Michael Wilson (A Place In The Sun, The Bridge On The River Kwai, and others) and John Howard Lawson (Sahara, Cry, The Beloved Country, and others). The authors also shape a thesis arguing that the left-leaning talent of Hollywood transformed the favored film genres of the time: fantasy, noir, and the western. Text includes 16 b&w photographs.

A revealing and affectionate account of the personal and political lives of the left-wing screenwriters, directors and actors behind Hollywood's Golden Age. Featuring rare film stills, it relates the story-behind-the-story of films such as "Casablanca" and "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror".

Paul Buhle is a lecturer in the American civilization department at Brown University. He co-authored the Encyclopedia of the American Left, Tender Comrades, and A Very Dangerous Citizen (with Dave Wagner). He writes for the Nation, the Guardian, and the Times Higher Education Supplement among other publications.

Dave Wagner is the former political editor of the Arizona Republic.

Introduction
1 The Screenwriter's Fate 1
2 The New Deal, the Rise of the Hollywood Left, and the Jewish Question 56
3 Genre Realized: The Radical World of the B Film 111
4 Success, but at Any Price? The New Deal Film and the Marketing of the Popular Front 154
5 War on Two (or Three) Fronts 202
6 Film Commentary and Theory in Midpassage 261
7 Politics and Mythology of Film Art — The Noir Era 321
8 To the Bitter End 369
Epilogue 437
Index 449