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Ali 
"Those aren't pillows."
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 Posted - 08/16/2007 : 14:00:54
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Yeah - that is why I had to check his right-wing credentials.
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 08/16/2007 : 14:18:53
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He's politically not so straightforward it seems.
He was a Republican, and was involved in some famous battles with the unions, one being over a $1 levy which cost him $100,000 a year (!) but he never testified against anyone to HUAC and in fact, for "The Ten Commandments" he personally broke the boycott, which he considered unfair, by hiring blacklisted artists, including Elmer Bernstein and Edward G Robinson.
So, although very much a Republican, he also had firm political principles even if it cost him money or meant taking on McCarthyism.
http://www.cecilbdemille.com/bio.html
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Ali
"Those aren't pillows."
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Posted - 08/16/2007 : 14:57:24
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I have come across a slightly different set of facts:
quote:
[The Ten Commandments] again made a large profit for Paramount. De Mille however was much disliked by this point, and rightfully so, for his ultra right-wing tactics and heated anti-communist stance, as well as his helping in the witch hunts of that era. His attempt to take control of the Director's Guild from Joseph L. Mankiewicz...mainly because Mankiewicz was not born in America and was thought to be an "undesirable alien"...only ended up backfiring in his face (thanks in part to John Ford, who personally disliked De Mille and was one of the few directors in Hollywood to constantly stand up to him). Despite these rather tragic flaws, De Mille does remain an amazing influence on countless filmakers, many of whom still wish to combine a good story with impressive, stylistic productions and visuals.
Here.
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 08/16/2007 : 15:15:59
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A complex character indeed.
However, it would have been quite possible to be very anti-Communist and still object to the flimsy reasoning by which many artists were blacklisted. After all, the essential dishonesty in McCarthyism was the approbrium they heaped on named "communists" without any fair legal process.
In any case, some blacklisted artists were hired for The Ten Commandments and I assume the path of least resistance would have been not to hire them. Given his general views, I'd assume that he hired them because he believed they were not communists rather than a belief that communists should be hired just like anyone else.
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 08/16/2007 : 23:54:33
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| The f--king popcorn numbers make the review valid. |
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Sean's FYCTH #326
