erik lundegaard

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Thursday January 28, 2016

I'm Not Saying HUAC was Fascist, But...

 From “J. Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies: The FBI and the Origins of Hollywood's Cold War” by John Sbardellati (recommended):

In one sense HUAC wished to restore the entertainment function of Hollywood. According to Jack Moffitt, Communist propagandists had been waging a battle to make the cinema a “forum for reform” by favoring social problem films “attacking American institutions, showing up the worst side of it.” Committee member John McDowell agreed and repeatedly advised “that pictures ought to stay in the pure field of entertainment.”

And from “Cinemas of the World: Film and Society from 1895 to the Present” by James Chapman (also recommended):

Goebbels, for his part, was firmly of the opinion that feature films should provide escapist entertainment for the masses and that direct propaganda should be confined to the newsreels.

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Posted at 06:51 AM on Thursday January 28, 2016 in category Movies