Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageHollywood on Trial (1976)
Director: David Helpern Jr
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
It's hardly surprising that Hollywood on Trial ends up being interesting mostly for the footage of individual testimonies at the 1947 House Un-American Activities Committee hearings on Hollywood. Helpern's documentary begins with a short potted newsreel history of America from the early '30s until the end of World War II. From there it gradually zeroes in on the persecution of the group of (mainly) screenwriters who were to become known as the Hollywood Ten for their defiance of the burning question, 'Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?' The film sometimes succumbs to the simplistic in its attempts to adequately contextualise the HUAC hearings. And the interviews with the jailed and blacklisted thirty years on - Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Zero Mostel and many others - add little to our comprehension of the paranoia rampant in the McCarthy era. Worth seeing for the film of the hearings themselves, though.Author: RM
Cast & crew
Director: David Helpern Jr
Producer: James Gutman, David Helpern Jr
Cast: Walter Bernstein, Zero Mostel, Edward Dmytryk, Howard DaSilva, Ring Lardner Jr, Gary Cooper, Otto Preminger, Ronald Reagan, Joseph McCarthy, John Huston, Joseph Losey, Dalton Trumbo, Martin Ritt full cast
Genre(s): Documentaries
Duration: 102 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now