Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

and chaired by Martin Dies) involved in anti-communist investigations, but because it
achieved its reputation for its efforts to inspect and regulate the Hollywood film industry.
A couple of years after the end of WWII, the Committee started a powerful investigation of
people working in the film industry, from screenwriters, directors to actors and actresses
who might possibly be involved, or were cited as being suspect of communist activities or
supporting beliefs in them. These movie professionals were brought to court to testify
about their known or suspected membership of the Communist Party and/or association
with its members. It was during these testimonies that what became known as the “$64,000
question” was asked: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist
Party of the United States?” Among the people sent to Court by the Committee were ten
who firmly decided not to disclose the names of people involved. These people, who
became known as “Hollywood Ten”, ended up being sentenced to prison, although they
were evoking their legitimate First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Apart from
being blacklisted from the world of entertainment, these people from the film industry had
their integrity questioned in the service of a hysterical cause, better defended by a stricter
adherence to American democratic and constitutional values. Interestingly, the dark and
brooding tone of film noir, with its pervasive atmosphere of fear and paranoia, its sense of
hopeless fatalism, echoed the dark, political accusatory climate that was the norm in
Hollywood during the House’s hunt for communist insurgents and potential informers. All
these factors are well documented, especially the unbalanced accusations made to the
victims of McCarthyism, and the frantic subversion of their civil rights.
I have already listed the various (cultural, historical and literary) influences that
antedated film noir. However, the socio-political interventions that the film industry
experienced in the post-World War II period are just as relevant. The noir discourse
assumed by a minority of filmmakers began to send out signs of radical and critical
distress, as a cultural expression of resistance to the political and artistic repression of in
those years. Up to this point, it has been made clear that under the oppressive cloud of
McCarthyism many entertainment careers were curtailed, and consequently many aspects
of motion picture production were affected. However, these political influences cannot be
dissociated from the social and historical factors that have also shaped the style, more
explicitly, the threat of nuclear war which fuelled the paranoia that pervades the noir cycle.
Many directors and producers associated with film noir – such as John Garfield, Abraham
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