Odd man out : a memoir of the Hollywood Ten / Edward Dmytryk. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dmytryk, Edward.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dmytryk, Edward.

Motion picture producers and directors--United States--Biography.

Motion picture producers and directors.

Communism and motion pictures--United States.

Communism and motion pictures.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 210 p. ) ill. ;

Other Title:

Odd Man Out

Place of Publication:

Carbondale, IL : Southern Illinois University Press, c1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee rudely interrupted the successful career and life of Edward Dmytryk, citing him with contempt of Congress. As a result, Dmytryk was fired by RKO and spent three years in England before returning to the United States to serve a six-month jail sentence and undergo a second round of hearings, during which he recanted and provided evidence against several of his former colleagues.

In this personal and perceptive book, Dmytryk vividly chronicles the history of a particularly turbulent era in American political life while examining his own life before and after the events universally called the witch hunts. He details his brief membership in the Communist Party of America, explaining his initial commitment to what he perceived as communist ideals of civil liberties, economic justice, and antifacism, followed by his eventual disillusionment with the party as it betrayed those ideals. He goes on to provide a fair assessment of what then happened to him and the effect it had on the rest of his life.

Dmytryk describes the activities, prejudices, and personal behaviors of all the parties enmeshed in the congressional hearings on communism in Hollywood. His reactions to other members of the Hollywood Ten and his recollection of conversations with them lend his book an immediacy that is not only informative but also absorbing. Most importantly, he does not uphold an ideology but rather presents the events as he perceived them, understood them, and responded to them.

Contents:

Mr. Tavenner. What is your name, please?

For a short time during the thirties

In 1944

"Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in"

This book is not

In the fall of 1947, Joe McCarthy

"Hollywood accused"

The honorable J. Parnell Thomas

Mr. Crum. May I request the right of cross-examination?

The hearings were now history

We had departed

The next day

Our return to our country's capital

On Sunset Boulevard

On June 9, 1950

West Virginia

"It's a beautiful morning"

The one certain thing

After a long, slow trip

Mr. Tavenner. What is your name, please?

The FBI

The Menjou anecdote

Once again

In 1926

The July 20, 1998 issue

It is odd, but amusing.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0-585-09829-8