Episode 35: The Manchurian Candidate (1962) | The Reds, White, & Blue: Film & the Fear of a Communist Menace

Hal & Craig discuss John Frankenheimer's 1962 political thriller THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, and Janet Leigh and the cynical, political use of the vague Communist Menace. We discuss the history of the Red Scare, the legacy of McCarthyism, and the lives upended in its wake. Discussion also includes:

• Craig finally watched Hal's favorite movie: THE DEVILS;

• Our favorite right-wing moron, Steven Crowder, is still having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day!;

• Good news on Florida's terrible Don't Say Gay Bill;

• We read (and laugh at) Armond White's 2023 Better-Than List.

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SOURCES & LINKS

• McCarthyism and the Big Lie by Milton Howard (1953):

  • https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735061657866/viewer#page/1/mode/2up 

• Last issue (January 1958) of the Communist Party’s Daily Worker newspaper:

  • https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/v35-n007-jan-13-1958-FINAL-ISSUE-Daily-Worker-Q.pdf 

• Info on the McCarran Act:

  • https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/mccarran-internal-security-act-of-1950/ 

• McCarthy:

  • https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/have-you-no-sense-of-decency.htm

  • https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-and-army-mccarthy-hearings.html

  • https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures//investigations/mccarthy-hearings/communists-in-government-service.htm

  • https://www.senate.gov/about/oral-history/watt-ruth-young-oral-history.htm

  • https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/house-un-american-activities-committee#materials

  • https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45037

  • https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/political-affairs/index.htm

  • https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/youngsocialist/index.htm  

  • https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/How-red-baiting-crusade-collapsed-in-SF-courtroom-10907115.php