GUILTY BY SUSPICION

US, 1991, 105 minutes. Colour.
Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig, Sam Wanamaker, Luke Edwards, Chris Cooper, Ben Piazza, Martin Scorsese, Barry Primus, Gailard Sartain, Robin Gammill, Tom Sizemore.
Directed by Irwin Winkler.

While the US congressional inquiries into un-American activities of the 1940s and 1950s which led, among other things, to the Hollywood black list, are particularly American, the theme of fanatical right-wing witch hunts is one of universal interest. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible highlighted this.

Guilty by Suspicion is a fiction, set in 1951, but it refers to real persons, sometimes by name as with Darryl F. Zanuck and 20th Century Fox (Ben Piazza), sometimes by allusion as with director Joe Lesser (played by Martin Scorsese) who is really Joseph Losey and whose Boy With Green Hair is glimpsed, albeit three years after it was released.

Robert De Niro brings conviction to the role of the director who attended some Communist Party meetings in the late 1930s and who is being asked to name names and whose highly successful career is destroyed. Annette Bening is his wife. George Wendt is his genial but frightened screenwriter friend. Sam Wanamaker, himself blacklisted, plays a lawyer advising the director. Chris Cooper plays a film-maker who is browbeaten by the House investigations (Gailard Sartain and Robin Gammill being particularly obnoxious), with Patricia Wettig as his demented wife. Tom Sizemore plays a role which is based on the real-life Roy Kohn.

The treatment of the theme is competent rather than dramatic, but it is an interesting memory of what Lillian Hellman called ‘scoundrel time’ and tells a story that has been repeated about the film industry in such films as The Front with Woody Allen and repeated in all walks of life from politics to church.

The film was directed by prolific producer (for over forty years), Irwin Winkler, also director of a range of interesting entertainments including Night in the City, The Net, At First Sight, Life as a House and De Lovely.

1. Audience knowledge of the black list, un-American activities, the witch hunts of the 1940s and 50s? The ideology behind them? Audience response to these times?

2. The black list, post-war America, the coming down of the Iron Curtain, suspicion of communism, the House investigating un-American activities, Parnell and McCarthy?, their later disrepute? The hearings, the demand for names and places, in the name of patriotism? Scoundrel time and the ruining of careers and families?

3. The facts used in the film, the references to the Hollywood Ten and their fate, Darryl F. Zanuck and his role at 20th Century Fox, Jack Warner, Howard Hawks, the scene from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the sense of history and realism, the presentation of Joseph Losey and the screening of The Boy With Green Hair? Sam Wanamaker in the cast – and his experience of the black list?

4. California in the 1940s and 50s, Los Angeles, the studios, homes, restaurants? Washington, DC, the hearings? The use of actual names and dates?

5. Audience interest and sympathies with the characters? The alliance with Russia during the war? The Iron Curtain? The communist experience in retrospect? The black list in retrospect?

6. The focus on film-making, film-writing, directing and producing, acting? The personal lives of those involved?

7. The focus on David Merrill, Robert De Niro and his career? Darryl F. Zanuck, the role of 20th Century Fox, its successes, the project for David Merrill, his arrival back from Europe, his friendship with Bunny Baxter, being met on arrival? The later falling out? The experience of Larry Nolan, the information, the party, his gatecrashing, his wife, the response? This being used later? David and his relationship with Ruth and their son? The separation? The prospects after his being away, the beginning of a career in the 1950s?

8. Larry Nolan, at the hearing, the effect of the interrogations? Dorothy, his child, the separation, his giving names? The consequences for his life? His wife, highly-strung? Her being separated from her child? At the studios, the moods, the meal, Dorothy and her plea for David to put her in a play in New York? Her killing herself? The funeral – and the spies at the funeral?

9. Zanuck and David, their past, the meetings, the pressures, taking the film away from David? The meetings, their being thrown out, the motivations, the consequences?

10. Ruth, at ease, talking with David, her love for him? With Dorothy? Her teaching job, the pressures? At home? Her attending the hearings – and her being condemned as unfit to teach?

11. Bunny Baxter, his writing, his loyalties, the communist background, his fears, falling out with David, the hearings, his final decision and courage?

12. The Joseph Losey story, Scorsese acting the part, the various options, the screening of The Boy With Green Hair, his decision to go to the United Kingdom?

13. David and losing his job, looking for other jobs, New York and the play, taking on the western, his work at the studio, the actors, the producer and his deals, his being ousted, the new director?

14. The build-up to his testimony? The dilemmas, his conscience, integrity? The role of the lawyer, his advice, withdrawing during the hearings?

15. The hearings, the senators, their aggression? The visit from Ray Karlin? His righteous threats? Smug appearance? His being present at the hearings? The righteous language of the accusers, the interrogations?

16. David, his speech, the replies – and the quotations from Joseph Welsh (**??) about the interrogators being ashamed? His reply being the key to the issues?

17. Lillian Hellman’s calling this time scoundrel time?