Help Me Build A Red-Scare/Cold War Collection

[Ollie]

Those are good arguments, yes. Thanks.

I did a "keyword" search over on IMDB using "cold-war" and got 1,107 titles. In the first couple of pages, (about 400 titles), there were some forgotten inclusions, like 2010 with the hostilities back on Earth.

Or John Goodman's fun MATINEE (1993) where he plays a William Castle-type movie mogul, showing his giant-ant-man monster film during the Cuban missile crisis.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST is even listed, and I understand that. But ROCKY & BULLWINKLE cartoons? How could I NOT include those?!! (Or even forget their Cold War hilarity?)

There are so many I'd forgotten. A lot are "apocalypse/end of world" type films like FIVE, ON THE BEACH, MIRACLE MILE, etc.

There were many unknown-to-me titles, like the 1953 CANADIAN MOUNTIES VS. ATOMIC INVADERS. And on IMDB's 10-star rating system, this one gets only 4 stars! Yikes. It sounds perfect!

I'd also forgotten the blacklisting films, like SROWLEY brought up in the allegorical Westerns, but the 1976 THE FRONT with Zero Mostel and Woody Allen. A good film about the impact that McCarthy and HUAC were having.

ONE TWO THREE (1961) with Cagney & Coca-Cola. That's a definite winner!

[movieman1957]

Dewey mentioned "Kiss Me Deadly" and it is due to air on Retroplex this week. I don't have an exact time yet. "Seven Days To Noon" was recently played on TCM so myabe another viewing is in the plans. "Seven Days in May" is great. I have it on tape but have not seen it listed on TV anywhere in some time.

[srowley75]

But ROCKY & BULLWINKLE cartoons? How could I NOT include those?!! (Or even forget their Cold War hilarity?)

I wasn't sure at first if you'd be interested in television programs - but for anyone interested in Cold War era culture, The Twilight Zone is an absolute must. Many of those famously preachy Rod Serling scripts made overt references to the bomb and the ever-present threat of nuclear war. Others simply called for international understanding and peace (one of the more popular stories remains "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," often featured in junior high literature texts).

-Stephen

[klondike]

Say, Ollie, come to think of it, didn't a lot of Nash Forbes' paranoid fantasies in A Beautiful Mind have to do with Ed Harris as an undercover agent outwitting Commie spies?

[ChiO]

Ollie worried:

I think a lot (all?) of the '50s and '60s Monster films could be tied into Cold War-Red Scare types. I've been trying to locate the Soviet equivalents for 17 years with almost no success. ("Is there a Monster Film Gap?!! Was the West so far ahead of the Soviet film industry about creating Fear Of Other Side in the form of Godzilla types?")

Although it's from the mid-'40s, there's always IVAN THE TERRIBLE (Parts I & II).

[ChiO]

I don't think anyone has mentioned THE FEARMAKERS (Jacques Tourneur, 1958), wherein a polling organization is discovered to be working for the Communists and skewing polling results in order to influence U.S. lawmakers to pass favorable legislation (I know...it can't happen here). It's not available commercially (probably due to a Communist plot), but TCM is showing it in June.

SILVER LODE is interesting because the Good Guy (John Payne) is saved from the town mob (HUAC/McCarthy) by the Good Gal (Lizabeth Scott). How? By deceit. Hmmmm..... TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN is another Western with an anti-HUAC/McCarthy subtext. Plus, the cast and crew had several folks directly impacted by the hearings.

If your dream collection is broad enough in scope to include arguably pro-HUAC/McCarthy subtexts, don't forget Elia Kazan. Not just ON THE WATERFRONT, but BOOMERANG (granted that it can be read as anti- , but Dr. Howard, Dr. Freud, Dr. Howard would go with the pro- ) and PANIC IN THE STREETS (the virus that can spread throughout the populace must be stopped at any price).

[Ollie]

A BEAUTIFUL MIND might be the last 'modern' film I've seen with this context in mind. The IMDB listing had it and I'm rather disappointed in my olde memory so quickly fading. ha ha And I love seeing the arguments presented for these Westerns.

I've been adding more '50s TV shows to my collection (like THE M SQUAD with Lee Marvin) in anticipation that he'll eventually roust some commie pinko saboteurs. Hopefully Dana Andrews won't be among them!

The comment about adding Elia Kazan films presents only a slight debate. I think a collection can be more inclusive than less. And while I credit Kazan with giving himself more of a blackmark than anyone else, although his victims won't be so kind.

So, I think his films are often worthy additions. PANIC IN THE STREET is an interesting one to debate. It has some dialog that easily slips into commie pinko hysteria. It also demonstrates that, to a certain working class-on-the-waterfront (how odd for Kazan!! haha), cooperation with the authorities is never permitted until death appears. They may hate their local thugs (surely they all knew Jack Palance for what he was), but a cop is still their main enemy. The Man - ooooh.

I like the construction of the friendship between Paul Douglas and Richard Widmark, and the construction of the anti-neighbor sentiments when Widmark's across-the-street neighbor tries to give him fatherhood counselling. Well done dialog, every step of the way.

[klondike]

As if you don't already have your work cut-out for you . . . . !
What about the whole "World We Never Made" subgenre from the 80's, that featured invading Soviet armies?
The two that jump to mind for me are the macho-teenage fantasy of Red Dawn, and the wonderfully well-written, greatly underappreciated mini-series "Amerika", for which Lahti & Kristoffersen should have gotten Emmies!

[Ollie]

I'm unfamiliar with AMERIKA. I wonder where I was when that came out?!! Thanks for that heads-up.

[MikeBSG]

I think nearly every film made between 1947-1991 can be seen as having some "Cold War" elements in it. So, Ollie, you might need to narrow your parameters a bit. I usually think of the era 1947-65 as being "Cold War," the era 1965-1979 as "Vietnam/Detente" (which shares concerns with the earlier era but is more focused on other things) and then the era 1979-1991 as "Cold War II."

Speaking of "Cold War II," try to find a copy of "Miracle Mile," a great nuclear war film that had the misfortune of coming out in 1990 when nobody cared anymore. It stars Anthony Edwards and is very powerful and suspenseful. I suppose one might also consider "The Terminator" a Cold War II movie, with the Terminator a spin-off of SDI technology. See also "Robocop" for its jokes about SDI.

As for Soviet "Cold War" movies, I would disagree with counting "Ivan the Terrible" as one. This was intended as a three part project in WWII and isn't really tied to the Cold War.

The immediate post-WWII era in Soviet culture is often called the "Zhdanovshchina," after Andrei Zhdanov, who tried to enforce a crackdown on Soviet culture after the liberalization allowed during WWII. Perhaps not coincidentally, this caused what became known as a 'film famine," a shortage of new feature films. one film that sounds intriguing is "The Russian Question," about an American correspondent who returns to America from the USSR and is pressured to write anti-Soviet propaganda. Good luck finding a copy.

Most films of the late Stalin era (1945-53) either emphasized Russian heroes of the past, such as inventors, or presented Stalin as the sole architect of Soviet victory in WWII. There weren't that many films in that era, and they mostly ignored the US instead of demonizing it.

There is an East German film from around 1950 "Council of the Gods" that might be available on DVD that shows West German Big Business in the pocket of the Americans preparing for a new world war.

[Ollie]

Mike, your time-frames and argument about "too vast" is correct. MIRACLE MILE is one of my most frequently-recommended films, something I'd recommend to everyone. It's SLIGHTLY about Cold War mentality, because it sets off the film's climax, but it's so much more than that. Strong film, strong performances from a group that shouldn't have delivered such powerful chops.

I think your notion of a ColdWar genre and a Detente genre are pretty interesting, too. I usually stick the MIRACLE MILEs, ON THE BEACH, FAIL SAFE films in my End Of The World or Apocalypse genre. But the "Detente" genre could be interest to shove the RED DAWNs and Failed Cold War tales in that category. Because those films shows the events of a Failed Cold War or a Failed Detente.

I'm still rasslin' with those darned Westerns. I love the arguments, but they're not swaying me, and I haven't decided if I'm too entrenched with the tumbleweeds and black-hats, or if I can verbalize a better reason to do battle with SROWLEY and others. Most of those arguments deal with the writers' 'visions' and allegories, and I'm not sure I could limit myself to saying, "This is only a Cold War allegory and has no other link in human history..."

AND... if I'm looking at my collection sorted by these odd-ball genres, would I EVER think to look under "Cold War" for TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN? I never have before. Would I? ha ha... all of this does reveal a peevishly small amount of useful memory to me! ha ha

[Ollie]

Mike, one other point about breaking a Cold-War Genre into bits.

I started an Amnesia genre last year, and I'm still thinking of chopping that into bits. Amnesia-War would refer to THIRTY SIX HOURS, for example. Amnesia-Cold War could refer to MIRAGE (with Gregory Peck). What about Amnesia-Crime? This seems to fit well into most of these films - SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT (with John Hodiak) and it's film sibling with John Payne, THE CROOKED WAY. And PARADINE CASE and a variety of other Amnesia Courtrooms. ha ha. Eventually, of course, I've chopped "Amnesia" into so many sub-groups that I've forgotten them. Yup. "Amnesia Amnesia" is purely for me.

[TikiSoo]

Please don't forget to check out avgeeks.com site for compilations of vintage educational shorts. I have the ABombs, Fall Out & Nuclear War collection and it's a scream!

Please support these guys, they have spent a lot of time and money to collect & transfer these almost lost films to DVD. (why I won't just burn you a copy, sorry)

[Ollie]

Tiki, thanks for the heads-up to this site, and the well-reasoned argument about consumers rewarding their efforts. Well done.

I've snagged a few more, thanks to all of your efforts, and am watching for the others. FEARMAKERS is definitely on my agenda. I thought A BEAUTIFUL MIND was an interesting film if only to see how, when backed into a wall, some psyches fill in their motivations with populist enemies. "They are doing to me - not me doing it!!" Mostly, I thought MIND's rather modern production was an interesting aspect to it as well, revealing a smart mind's weaknesses 30-40 years later. It's a strong story, and I'm glad they did it.

I think this is, of course, the true cost of propoganda - that well-reasoned choices can't be made because fearmongering has made it easier for the masses to run in one predictable direction. The Lemmings Syndrome.

[Ollie]

Feaito, have you found any good South American entries that might fit here? You've supplied me with some good horror flix in the past. Any of these Cold War entries you can think of?