• Director: Oriol Porta
  • Release Year: 2008
  • Production Country: Spain
  • Language: Spanish, English
  • Run Time: 92 minutes

Hollywood contra Franco

Description

The Spanish Civil War was one of the first issues that Hollywood "adopted" as its own, slanting the movie plots and agitating on other fronts in support of the Spanish government against General Franco. One man, Alvah Bessie, left Hollywood to fight with Republican forces in Spain, sacrificing his successful career as a screenwriter and unwittingly setting himself up for future prosecution by the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities during the Cold War.

Themes

Second Spanish Republic (1931 – 1939), Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939), Political uses of film, Political oppression, Cold War, Alvah Bessie (1904 – 1985), Hollywood Ten, Hollywood, Cross-cultural interpretations, Primary sources, Oral history, Communism, Film history