Word: blacklisted
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Cooked Spaghetti. The flap has obscured two issues raised by the boycott: the boycott itself and the mysterious Arab "blacklist" of American firms. The boycott bans from Arab trade any company whose business substantially helps Israel. Complying with it, as the candidates have failed to note, is not illegal; no U.S. law forces a company that sells to Arabs to sell to Israelis also...
David Halpern's Hollywood On Trial takes a long, diffuse perspective on the Ten and their times, starting with the thirties and moving in little leaps up to the dissolution of the blacklist in the sixties. The footage of the hearings is glorious because, of course, they were staged by the Committee to look like movies. The best actor of all is a young Ronald Reagan who earnestly looks through his clearframed glasses at the Chairman and summons the words of Jefferson to make his point. ("I guess Jefferson..." a humble pause... "said it best...") Gary Cooper shrugs and grins...
Halpern's film tries to explain the period, and of course, it does not. It stretches and sprawls and sometimes the interviews just go flat. But it is by far the best work done on the ugly little freak blacklist, and it is hard to imagine anybody attempting to match the ambitious perspective of Hollywood on Trial. It pulls in Herbert Hoover and Zero Mostel. Joseph McCarthy and Walt Disney, and although it doesn't have the footwork some documentaries do, it is an impressive mosaic...
...Blacklist Victims. The Front's scriptwriter, its director and one star (Zero Mostel) were themselves victims of the blacklist. Despite many virtues, however, the picture seems thin and schematic. Part of the problem lies in the fact that many of the incidents used in the story are taken directly from history. Whether they seem familiar or not, they are never as fully developed as they might have been in a documentary film, nor as fully digested as they should have been by any first-class dramatist. An even more serious flaw, however, is the fact that not a single...
...response, Bechtel admitted it is indeed complying with the boycott but denied it is restraining competition because the goods or services of blacklisted firms would not be allowed into Arab countries anyway. In addition, Bechtel contends that the Justice Department is seeking to broaden illegally the Sherman Act to include foreign or political boycotts, as well as domestic restraints of trade. Most compellingly, the company argues that the Government itself is complying with the boycott. Specifically, Bechtel said several U.S. agencies, most notably the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey, when working in Arab countries, have "engaged...