The Missus and I watched a PBS American Masters show last night on Dalton Trumbo, the novelist and Hollywood screenwriter who (with several others) was jailed and blacklisted from working on films for refusing to answer questions about the alleged Communist affiliations of himself and his friends.
The show — 90 minutes — was terrific. No qualification necessary; it was so good I couldn’t believe it was airing for the first time in early September, rather than at the height of the viewing season. If you get a chance, and are at all interested in the history of Hollywood, free speech and other First Amendment issues, screenwriting, and/or the political atmosphere in the US in the 1950s*, I hope you too get a chance to see it.
The main technique the documentary’s makers used was to have Trumbo’s words read straight to the camera by various actors (Donald Sutherland, Brian Dennehy, Joan Allen, Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson, David Straithairn, and others), intercut with memories by his family and friends and with archival video and audio clips of the man himself. This technique highlighted something about Trumbo which I’d never known before: he was one damned good writer of letters.**
One letter in particular stood out. It was a letter to his son, enclosed with two books which Trumbo was sending to him at college. I’d hoped to find the text online for this post. But, even better, someone’s already put it up on YouTube. (Transcript here.) The letter is read by Nathan Lane; it’s hilarious, at moments moving, stylistically over-the-top, and also rather risque. Please don’t play it if you’re squeamish about s*x, particularly the variety which requires only one participant.
But I’ll tell you one thing: whatever the subject, that sonofabitch could write — even if his son (as he says in the video) had to read the letter with a dictionary close by. (I almost said “with a dictionary in one hand” but realized the racy implication.) (Noticed it and let it stop me at first, anyway, though obviously my resolve weakened in the parenthesis.)
_______________________
* Among the news to me was this tidbit: that the internment camps for Japanese-American citizens, vacated after World War II, were at one time being re-tooled as internment camps for “radicals,” i.e., people opposed to the activities of the House Un-American Affairs Committee (HUAC). Egad.
** I knew about his writing in general; check out this list of his works if he’s knew to you.
Froog says
Off the top of my head, I was only able to associate him with Roman Holiday and Spartacus – but right there you’ve got a pretty darned impressive resumé!
Technical note: it might just be a unique ‘China’ glitch of mine (I can’t see the YouTube clip either!), but the scroll feature doesn’t seem to be working on your text of the letter (nor can I expand the window) – frustrating!
Recaptcha: sanctity Inkso
John says
Froog: According to the documentary, when Roman Holiday was first released, the screenplay and story were credited to one of Trumbo’s numerous “fronts.” After the blacklist, the studio edited the credits to name Trumbo on the “story by” line — while leaving the front’s name as the screenwriter.
In 1956, his screenplay for The Brave One won an Oscar… under the name of another front, a man named Robert Rich. Unfortunately, Rich died before the ceremony, so no one was on hand to receive the statue. After the ceremony, something like a half-dozen other Robert Riches stepped forward, claiming to be the screenwriter. The Academy didn’t give the Oscar to any of them, holding onto it until finally giving it to Trumbo in 1975.
Thanks for the heads-up about the problem with the pop-up text box. You should be able to use not the mouse, but the up- and down-arrow keys, as well as Page Up and Page Down. I didn’t want to do a regular link because I wanted it to be able to be viewed at the same time as the video. But for simplicity’s sake, you can just read it here. A shame you can’t see the video, though; Nathan Lane really adds something to the raw words!
jules says
“Cheerful self-pollution.” HA.
Thanks for the PBS recommendation.