THE HOLLYWOOD LEFT: CINEMATIC ART AND ACTIVISM IN THE 1930s by Sam Mithani ____________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (CINEMA-TELEVISION—CRITICAL STUDIES) December 2007 Copyright 2007 Sam Mithani UMI Number: 3291776 Copyright 2007 by Mithani, Sam All rights reserved. UMI Microform 3291776 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ii EPIGRAPH When Arjuna observed the vast armies assembled on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, full of great and valiant fighters, he was full of fear. And when he saw that arrayed before him were his fathers, brothers, sons, cousins, grandfathers and uncles, whom he must fight to achieve victory, his apprehension grew vastly. Seeing them all filled him with compassion and he declared to Lord Krsna “I do not see how any good can come from killing my own kinsmen in this battle, nor can I, my dear Krsna, desire any subsequent victory, kingdom, or happiness.” Arjuna, having thus spoken on the battlefield, cast aside his bow and arrows and sat down on the chariot, his mind overwhelmed with grief. But Lord Krsna told him to perform his prescribed duty, take up his weapons and to go forth into the battle of life for “action is better than inaction…the doubts which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge.” --adapted from The Bhagavad Gita iii DEDICATION I wish to express my keenest appreciation for and gratitude to Frank Capra (Caltech, 1918), whose life and work inspired me, while a student at Caltech, to become first a cineaste and then a cinema studies scholar. This work is dedicated to all artists, past, present and future, with a passionate and “critical” vision. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Curtis Marez, and Marsha Kinder, Andrei Simic, Anne Friedberg and Paul Knoll for seeing this dissertation to its successful completion. Immense thanks, and a vote of gratitude, to my family who have been wonderfully supportive of my creative work and my advanced studies. And a very special thanks to my good friend and colleague, Denise Lugo. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Epigraph ii Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract vi Chapter One: Dissertation premise, method and organization 1 Chapter Two: The “Red Decade” and its Influence on American Cinema, Literature and Culture 14 Chapter Three: A “Marxist” Cinema in Hollywood? Leftist cultural productions in their Social, Political and Cultural Contexts 78 Chapter Four: Antifascism, the Hollywood Left and the transformation of the social-problem film 155 Chapter Five: Leftist anti-Nazism, Warner Bros. studios and the further transformation of the social-problem film 222 Chapter Six: Further research on Leftist studies of the Thirties 283 Epilogue 291 Bibliography 292 Filmography 307 vi ABSTRACT The dissertation re-examines the Thirties in its artistic, cultural and political specificity to place leftist cultural productions in their complex contexts, particularly the ideological. It concentrates on radical/proletarian fiction and Hollywood leftist cinema as expressions of prevalent “crisis” conditions, such the Great Depression and the New Deal, anti-Semitism, anticommunism, labor unionism, racism in the South, and the rise of fascism/Nazism. It demonstrates how the leftist favored genres in literature (proletarian fiction) and cinema (the social-problem film) underwent transformations in response to the changing national and global conditions, leftist political positions and debates on the inter-relations between art, ideology and culture. Working in the tradition of American social criticism, the Hollywood Left responded productively to the challenges by creating a vibrant cinematic counter- discourse. Leftists strived to create a “popular Marxism” and a “leftist populism” by interpellating their critique within popular Hollywood genres, albeit subject to the commercial mandate of the studio system and its heavy-handed censorship apparatus. This contentious and creative engagement produced some of the most memorable “critical” works of Hollywood’s “Golden Age,” such as I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Fury and Dust Be My Destiny. The dissertation critically examines these films, compares them to the mainstream “populist cinema” of Frank Capra, and argues that the Hollywood Left creatively reworked this populism to vii fashion a far more critical, even abrasive, cinema, giving rise to the foundational works of American film noir. The dissertation also frames leftist cinema as a committed response to the remarkable changes in race, class, gender and ideology taking places within American culture. In particular, the totalitarian ideologies of fascism and Nazism presented grave challenges to democracy. The Hollywood Left led the filmic battle against these forces and produced energetic cinematic propaganda in films like Blockade (1938), Juarez (1939) and Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), which are the focus of this work. In essence the dissertation calls for a re-evaluation of the “Red Decade” as one of great cultural and artistic renaissance for American culture and the Left rather than one of disappointment, disillusion and disenchantment as has been popularized by conservative critics. 1 CHAPTER ONE DISSERTATION PREMISE, METHOD AND ORGANIZATION The beginning of the 1930s was the defining artistic, political and cultural period for the emerging generation of Hollywood leftists who would incorporate the ideal of social, cultural and political criticism in their filmic and literary output during the “Golden Age” of Hollywood (1930s to 1950s, to take a broad span). They strived to create a socially and politically conscious cinema both within the studio system, particularly at Warner Bros. studios, and via independent efforts such as Walter Wanger Productions. The leftist generation of the “Red Decade” authored some of the finest socially-critical works of American cinema and literature during the Thirties. This dissertation engages with leftist art and activism in their multivalent contexts and critically examines the degree to which these were instrumental in shaping the history of our nation—a contribution which, as if by a conjuring trick of cultural amnesia—been almost completely erased from our national consciousness. The Old Left was committed to the creation of an intellectual as well as a popular front that would agitate and “uplift” the masses as well as the socially and politically uncommitted. Hollywood leftists argued for a “Marxist cinema” whose discourse would operate in tandem with similar productions in literature, theatre, public art and political activism. The narratives they wrote, and the cultural contexts in which they performed their activism, were in this vein and for this purpose. Most believed that 2 their life and works had purpose and meaning beyond the critical acclaim and success that motivated them as artists and intellectuals. Prominent Hollywood leftist Walter Bernstein recalls how he and his “comrades,” who were shaped intellectually and ideologically by World War I and the Great Depression, met to discuss issues of social and political relevance: Our meetings mostly concerned such subjects as the entertainment unions, how we could help actors or writers or musicians, how we could mobilize them for political purposes. Also on the agenda were racial and sex discrimination, veterans’ rights, poverty, unemployment, the issues of the day. There were talks on Marxism- Leninism…American Communists had led the struggle for the unemployed during the Depression, had helped form the CIO, had led fights for Negro rights all over the country. It was something to be proud of. We were serious and dedicated and concerned about what we perceived as social injustice. 1 Communists such as John Howard Lawson, Lester Cole and Samuel Ornitz were instrumental in placing the Hollywood Left on a firm footing vis-à-vis the entertainment industry and the studio system. Together they co-founded the Screen Writers Guild in 1933, and Lawson served as its first president. According to Gary Carr, for Lawson “the Writers Guild was a logical preparation for Marxist commitment. Marxism satisfied both the visionary and the pragmatist, in that it presented a program of action through which all society could be reborn.”2 Perhaps this moment could be regarded as the founding event for the Hollywood Left, which would be pre-eminent in activist filmmaking during Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” 1 Walter Bernstein, Inside Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Blacklist (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), 134-35. 2 Gary Carr, The Left Side of Paradise: the Screenwriting of John Howard Lawson (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1984), 93. 3 HUAC investigations, and the consequent Hollywood Blacklist (fully formalized by 1952), could be regarded as the other decisive events, wherein prominent leftists were ousted from key positions in the industry, exiled from Hollywood and blacklisted. My present research concerns these decades of ideological ferment, plagued as it was with rivalries and contentions. This dissertation, however, only addresses the first decade of the engagement between the Hollywood