Chapter 7
The 1950s: Anti-Communism and Conformity
The purpose of this chapter is to explore political films of the 1950s, a time of economic
prosperity, moderate to conservative American political leadership, Cold War politics,
social conformity, urbanization, corporatization, and a growing civil rights movement.
Changes in the industry like the breakdown of the studio system and the Production
Code Administration also affected the political content and intention of this era’s films,
as did the rise of television and the Red Scare or anti-Communist movement.
Objectives for Chapter 7:
1. Trace the fate of the social problem film after its peak in the 1940s.
2. Explain the industrial response to the Paramount decision on divestiture and what
it meant economically for Hollywood, including increased pressure on studios to
produce films that exhibitors would show.
3. List the declining fortunes of post-divestiture Hollywood and sketch the threat of
television.
4. Point out the political topoi of the epics Hollywood produced to compete with
television: persecution of minorities, political allegory about the Red Scare, etc.
5. Describe how Hollywood responded to the House on Un-American Activities
Committee investigation of the industry, especially as many industry leaders caved
to anti-Communist pressure and paranoia leading to villainous caricature of
Communist or Communist sympathetic characters.
6. Describe leading examples of anti-Communist films, including Big Jim McClain
(1952), The Fountainhead (1949), and My Son John (1952).
7. Examine films like High Noon (1952) and Salt of the Earth (1954) that rebutted the
anti-Communist witch-hunt in Hollywood that many felt HUAC to be.
8. Identify those directors, producers, and actors who cooperated with HUAC and
those who did not.
9. Note the political films addressing other topics besides the Red Scare, including
those with a more humane depiction of minority groups and migrants and an overt
message of nondiscrimination.
10. Describe the way certain genres like the war film and science fiction changed in the
socio-political temperament of the times even as more traditional political films
emphasized a consensus, middle-of-the-road ideology.
Discussion Questions for Chapter 7:
1. What was Hollywood’s reaction by and large to HUAC?
2. Who were the figures who cooperated with HUAC and why did they do so? Who
were the dissenters and what did they do to object to the Red Scare?
3. What other political issues preoccupied filmmaking in this era besides the Red
Scare? In what way might we say these issues relate, however indirectly, to the Red
Scare scapegoating and finger-pointing dynamic?
4. Where does the film On The Waterfront fall in the Red Scare politics of the day?
How did the public respond to it?
5. How did Hollywood compete for viewers with television and to what political effect
in the films?
Assignments for Chapter 7:
1. Research the posters for films of this period, analyze their imagery, and then write an
essay analyzing how these films promoted their technological appeal (e.g.
Technicolor) and the implicit political messages these new aspects to filmmaking
transmitted. (For example: the big screen, blazing colors of the Biblical epics seemed
to evoke nuclear holocaust in a completely implicit manner.) What other fears and
paranoia are transmitted by the industry’s attempt to exploit new technology to draw
viewers out of their home and into the theater? Relevant films: e.g. The Ten
Commandments.
2. Based on the work of rabid anti-Communist Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead celebrates
the individual genius and vilifies “groupthink.” Write an essay exploring what other
politically significant messages resonate in this film. For example, how is
government represented? How are women viewed? Can women be geniuses like
Roark or is their job just to love them? Why does this ideology still sway leading
political figures of today (e.g. Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, etc.).
3. Compare and contrast The Fountainhead with The Salt of the Earth on the topic of
individual vs. collective action. Which film supports its position best?
4. Beyond vilifications of Communists, alleged or real, what other groups are implicitly
warned against in the Cold War hysteria films? Beyond their identification in the
films as belonging to or sympathetic with the Communist party, what other social
markers define these characters? How do these films actually scapegoat other
Americans as being “un–American?” (E.g. are they women? Jews? Gays? etc.)