(She’s writing about the book I’m reading now, Hollywood Traitors: Blacklisted Screenwriters Agents of Stalin, Allies of Hitler— or at least, that’s the idea, but it is so infuriating that I keep having to put it down…)
Ann Coulter writes about that book, and the forthcoming Dalton Trumbo biopic:
For someone who didn’t see why Americans should lift a finger to defeat Hitler, Trumbo was quick to detect fascism in America. When asked by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) whether he was a member of the Screen Writers Guild — a question answered by several writers far more prominent than he, such as Bertolt Brecht — he screamed at the committee, “This is the beginning of an American concentration camp!” (…)
I think I liked Cranston better as a meth cook.
Contrary to publicity pieces for “Trumbo” claiming that Hitler’s apologist “was punished for his principled stand for free speech and the Constitution,” when the real Trumbo testified before HUAC, he never mentioned the First Amendment. Only later, to prettify Trumbo’s silly outbursts, did his lawyers think to claim that he was making some sort of statement about free speech.
Nor did Trumbo have a problem with snitching on American citizens for their political beliefs. After dropping his own Hitler apologetics and withdrawing the god-awful “Johnny Got His Gun” from distribution, Trumbo took all the letters he had received praising his book — and turned them over to the FBI for investigation.