Trumbo (2007)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) was a Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted in 1947 during the Second Red Scare.

 

Trumbo is a documentary film about the Hollywood blacklist and Dalton Trumbo: what it did to him, to his career, and to his family.

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Directed by Peter Askin (born 1940)

** Produced by Will Battersby and Tory Tunnell

** Written by Christopher Trumbo (son of Dalton Trumbo)

** Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007

** Released on DVD in 2007 (US) and 2011 (UK)

** Run time: 89 minutes

 

The film is composed of five elements which are intertwined:

 

# 1. Recent interviews with witnesses (in colour)

# 2. Archive footage, brief clips, many (but not all) from the hearings in 1947 (in black-and-white)

# 3. Brief clips from movies for which Trumbo wrote the screenplay

# 4. Letters and poems written by Trumbo, read by actors

# 5. Brief clips with Trumbo himself.

 

PART ONE

For a while, Dalton Trumbo was one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood.

 

But things changed in 1947 when he was called as a witness by the House Un-American Activities Committee, known as HUAC.

 

A similar invitation was sent to many other screenwriters, producers, directors, and actors, who had a prominent place in the American entertainment industry.

 

Some witnesses were friendly. They were treated in a friendly way by the committee. These witnesses were mostly studio executives, who supported the committee.

 

Other witnesses were treated in a different way. They were regarded as hostile and were treated as such. The standard question they had to face was this:

 

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”

 

Some said yes, while others said no, but ten witnesses refused to answer the question. They became known as the Hollywood Ten, and Trumbo was one of them.

 

For refusing to cooperate with the committee they were charged with contempt of Congress and sentenced to one year in prison.

 

Once they were released, they were no longer able to work for anyone in the business. No one would hire them, because they were on the blacklist. They could of course write under an assumed name or use a front man, but they would not be credited under their own name.

 

PART TWO

Several persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants (listed in the order of appearance):

 

** Helen Manfull - editor of Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo (1970)

** Larry Ceplair - co-author of The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community (1980) (2003)

** Jean Rouverol (born 1916) - widow of the blacklisted writer Hugo Butler (1914-1968)

 

** Dustin Hoffman - actor

** Christopher Trumbo (1940-2011) - writer, son of Dalton Trumbo

** Donald Sutherland, actor

 

** Kirk Douglas (1916-2020) - actor, producer

** Emanuel Azenberg - Tony Award winning Broadway producer

** Victor Navasky - author of Naming Names (1980) (1999)

 

** Peter Hanson - author of Dalton Trumbo: Hollywood Rebel (2000) (2007)

** Walter Bernstein - uncredited screenwriter of The Magnificent Seven

** Lew Erwin - ABC broadcaster 1958-1962

 

** Melissa “Mitzi” Trumbo (born 1945) - daughter of Dalton Trumbo

** Kate Lardner - daughter of the blacklisted screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. (1915-2000)

 

PART THREE

Several old clips are used in the film. Many (but not all) are from the HUAC hearings in 1947. In these clips the following persons appear:

 

** J. Parnell Thomas - chairman of HUAC

** Emmet Lavery - president of the Screen Writers Guild in 1947

** Dalton Trumbo

 

** Winston Churchill - a British politician

** Louis B. Mayer - a studio owner

** Adolphe Menjou - an actor

 

** Robert Taylor (1911-1969) - an actor

** Walt Disney (1901-1966) - a producer

** Edward Dmytryk (1908-1999) - director of Crossfire – he was one of the Hollywood Ten, but later he changed his mind and decided to work with the committee; he began naming names

 

** Adrian Scott (1911-1972) - producer of Crossfire – one of the Hollywood Ten

** Eric Johnson - president, Motion Picture Association of America

 

** Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957) – a US Senator

** J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) - director of the FBI

 

Letters and poems written by Dalton Trumbo are read by several actors, including Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson, Brian Dennehy, Donald Sutherland, and Joan Allen.

 

When these letters and poems are read to us, we understand that Trumbo was a talented wordsmith. He enjoyed writing and he always made a carbon copy of his letters. This is why they are preserved and why they can be quoted in this film.

 

PART FOUR

Once Trumbo was on the blacklist, his life changed dramatically. First, he had to go to prison for about one year (1950).

 

When he was released, he decided to leave the US and go to Mexico. He lived with his family in Mexico City for about two years (1951-1953), but life was hard.

 

In the old days, while he was still popular in Hollywood, he would often make 75,000 dollars on a script. Now he was happy if he could sell a script for 2,500 dollars. It was difficult for him to provide for his family.

 

Fortunately for him, his family supported him all the way. His wife Cleo, who had married him in 1938, and his three children. Two of the three children appear in the film. His wife Cleo was born in 1916. When she died in 2009, she was 93.

 

During the 1950s, Trumbo kept writing screenplays, but he could not use his own name. The screenplay for the 1956 movie The Brave One was submitted under the name Robert Rich. This was the name of a real person, but he was a only front man.

 

This film won an Oscar for best screenplay. But nobody showed up to receive it. Who was Robert Rich? Very few people knew the truth at the time.

 

Many years later, in 1975, the truth could be revealed and Trumbo received the Oscar in his own name.

 

The story about the unclaimed Oscar is one of several interesting episodes which are reported in this film.

 

For Trumbo, the blacklist was broken in 1960 when he was credited with writing the screenplay for the movie Exodus and when Kirk Douglas credited him for writing the screenplay for the movie Spartacus.

 

Other writers had to wait for many years before they were able to write under their own name again.

 

In 2011, long after his death in 1976, Trumbo was given full credit for writing the screenplay for the 1953 movie Roman Holiday.

 

This film allows us to get close to Trumbo, not merely the professional writer, but also the private person.

 

When Trumbo was blacklisted, he discovered who his real friends were. Many turned their back on him, but a few did not, even though he was on the blacklist. The people who knew him talk about him with great respect, even if they do not always agree with his political point of view.

 

CONCLUSION

Trumbo was a man of principle, as demonstrated in this film. He refused to name names, when HUAC questioned him. There was a price to pay for having this principle and he was willing to pay it.

 

He suffered, and his family suffered with him, but they survived. According to Trumbo, it is better to stick to your principles than to betray your friends.

 

Trumbo is a warm portrait of a man who played an important role in the world of entertainment for several decades.

 

What do reviewers say about it? 

 

Here are the results of three review aggregators:

 

71 percent = Meta

75 percent = IMDb

78 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

84 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

 

The first rating (Meta) is too low. The other ratings are better, but if you ask me, they are not good enough.

 

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent)

 

PS # 1. Trumbo is the title of a historical drama (directed by Jay Roach and starring Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015.

 

PS # 2. For more information, see the following books:

 

Trumbo 

by Bruce Cook 

(1977) (2015)

 

Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist 

by Walter Bernstein 

(2000)

 

Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical 

by Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo 

(2014)

 

PS # 3. An official apology for the blacklist was published in The Hollywood Reporter on 30 November 2012 in an article written by Gary Baum and Daniel Miller.

 

PS # 4. The following items are available online:

 

Michael Cieply, 

“A Voice from the Blacklist,” 

New York Times, 

11 September 2007 

(a review of the documentary film)

 

Dennis McLellan, 

“Cleo Trumbo dies at 93,” 

Los Angeles Times, 

18 October 2009 

(an obituary)

 

Dennis McLellan, 

“Christopher Trumbo dies at 70,” 

Los Angeles Times, 

12 January 2011 

(an obituary)

 

*****

Trumbo

A historical drama

(2015)

 

*****

Dalton Trumbo, 

his wife Cleo (1916-2009)

and their three children:

Nicola (born 1939)

Christopher (1940-2011)

Melissa (Mitzi) (born 1945)

This photo was probably taken

while the family lived in Mexico

(1951-1953)

*****