Turner Classic Movies Remembers the Hollywood Blacklist This October

It was not long after World War II that the period known as the Second Red Scare began in the United States. It was a time of widespread fear of the infiltration of American society by Communism and other leftist ideologies. It was only a matter of time before right-wing, anti-Communist ideologues turned their eyes towards Hollywood. It was on July 29 1946 that William R. Wilkerson, founder and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, published a column naming several "Communist sympathizers" in the film industry (among them screenwriters Dalton Trumbo, Howard Koch, and Ring Lardner Jr.). It was in October 1947 that  the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) subpoenaed several figures from the film industry to testify at hearings regarding Communist infiltration of Hollywood. It was the beginning of the Hollywood Blacklist, a blacklist that denied employment to any actors, directors, writers, and other entertainment professionals perceived as being Communists, Communist sympathizers, or just too far to the left. Ultimately the Hollywood Blacklist, as well as the red baiting that occurred throughout the era, was not about punishing actual Communists. Legendary actress Marsha Hunt, who found herself blacklisted, said of the Blacklist, "But then I was told, once I was blacklisted, you see, I was an articulate liberal, and that was bad. I was told that in fact it wasn’t really about communism — that was the thing that frightened everybody — it was about control and about power."

This October Turner Classic Movies is observing the 75th anniversary of the Hollywood Blacklist the last three Wednesdays of October (October 13, October 20, and October 27). On October 13 TCM will debut the documentary High Noon on the Waterfront (2022). TCM describes the documentary as, "...an inventive remembrance of the impact of the Hollywood Blacklist on two American classics, High Noon (1952) and On the Waterfront (1954), rendered as a visually mesmerizing dialogue between Carl Foreman (voiced by Edward Norton) and Elia Kazan (voiced by John Turturro)." Each Wednesday TCM will show the works of those affected by the Hollywood Blacklist as well as movies about the Blacklist, including: High Noon (1952), directed by Carl Foreman; On the Waterfront (1954), directed by Elia Kazan; the documentary Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity (2015); Salt of the Earth (1954), directed by Herbert Biberman; and others.

Below is a schedule the movies TCM is showing in observation of the 75th anniversary of the Hollywood Blacklist. All times are Central.

Wednesday, October 13:
7:00 PM High Noon on the Waterfront (2022)
7:30 PM High Noon (1952)
9:00 PM High Noon on the Waterfront (2022)
9:30 PM On the Waterfront (1954)
11:30 PM High Noon on the Waterfront (2022)

Thursday, October 14:
12:00 AM Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity (2015)
2:00 PM Carnegie Hall (1947)

Wednesday, October 20:
7:00 PM Salt of the Earth (1954)
9:00 PM A King in New York (1957)
11:00 PM The Brave One (1956)

Thursday, October 21:
1:00 AM Time Without Pity (1957)
2:30 AM The Boy with Green Hair (1948)

Wednesday, October 27:
7:00 PM The Way We Were (1973)
9:15 The Front (1976)
11:00 PM The Majestic (2001)