Project Detail

One Of The Hollywood Ten

Synopsis

Set in the United States at the height of the Cold War in the fifties, One Of The Hollywood Ten examines the personal struggle and triumph of Herbert Biberman, a film director, in his crusade to continue his filmmaking career in the face of the McCarthy-led Blacklist. At its most personal, Biberman's story is a compelling drama of individual perseverance and familial sacrifice and, at its most political, a conspiracy thriller and ever-relevant testament to societal paranoia and hate-mongering.

The film opens by establishing the historical climate - anticommunist paranoia, Congressional persecution of 'unAmerican activities' and friends informing on friends - that pervaded the early years of the Cold War in Hollywood and beyond. In detail, the various reactions of members of the film community to persecution is explored, from the high-profile trip to Washington, D.C. by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in support of those persecuted that ended in his famous recantment, to the varying tactics of those not so readily remembered in pleading either the fifth or first amendments, or merely pleading to not be asked to speak at all. At the centre of this maelstrom is Herbert Biberman and his wife, Academy Award-winning actress Gale Sondergaard, who refused to name names and who stood by their acknowledged communist beliefs. For this, Biberman was cited for contempt of Congress, becoming in the process one of the 'Hollywood Ten', and was sentenced to serve jail time in a federal prison in Arkansas.

Act two evolves from the more familiar contextual elements of the Blacklist in the first act, to follow Herbert and Gale's attempts to restart their film-making careers on Herbert's release from prison. Herbert, unable to be re-instated to the Director's Guild of America, an organisation he co-founded in the thirties, resolved to strike back in the only way he knew possible: by making a film: The Salt of the Earth.

Details

Year
2001
Type of project
Features
Format
35mm Kodak
Director
Karl Francis
Producer
Lucrecia Botín, Gareth Jones, Alvaro Longoria
Editor
John Richards
Screenwriter
Karl Francis
Director of Photography
Nigel Walters
Sound
Antonio Bloch, Tim Ricketts
Composer
John Rea, Victor Reyes
Principal cast
Jeff Goldblum, Greta Scacchi, Angela Molina

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Morena Films

Contact: Juan Gordon
C/O Alibi Films International
12 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7NA
UK

T +44 020 7845 0410

afi@alibifilms.co.uk

Sales Company

Morena Films

Contact: Juan Gordon
C/O Alibi Films International
12 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7NA
UK

T +44 020 7845 0410

afi@alibifilms.co.uk

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