In this unique anthology of social criticism, David Platt reprints the
insightful contributions of more than fifty screenwriters, directors,
producers, historians, and critics--men and women, radical and liberal,
including not a few former political prisoners, deportees, and
exiles--on diverse films from the earliest years of the film industry
through the 1970s. Documentary films are included, and close attention
is paid to nationalities and minorities. Among the contributors are
Maxim Gorky, David Platt, Anthony Slide, Lewis Milestone, Jay Leyda,
Kevin Brownlow, Harry Alan Potamkin, S.M. Einstein, Lewis Jacobs, Leo
Seltzer, Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner, Jr., Jean Renoir, Abraham Polonsky,
Lorraine Hansberry, Gale Sondergaard, Dalton Trumbo, Arthur Knight, and
many others.