[Marxism] Bernard Gordon

[Louis Proyect]

May 14, 2007
Bernard Gordon, Screenwriter, Dies at 88
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES, May 13 (AP) — Bernard Gordon, a screenwriter blacklisted 
during Hollywood's anti-Communist crusade in the 1950s, died on 
Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88.

The cause was cancer, said his daughter, Ellen Gordon.

Mr. Gordon wrote dozens of movies, but many never carried his name 
until the Writers Guild of America began restoring credits to 
blacklisted writers in 1980. About a dozen of Mr. Gordon's credits 
were restored, more than those of any other writer, said Dave Robb, a 
longtime friend.

Among them was Mr. Gordon's writing credit on "Hellcats of the Navy" 
(1957), which starred Ronald Reagan and his future wife, Nancy Davis.

Mr. Gordon's movies included "55 Days at Peking," "Battle of the 
Bulge" and the 1962 science-fiction cult classic, "The Day of the 
Triffids," along with low-budget fare like "Zombies of Mora Tau."

Mr. Gordon was born Oct. 29, 1918, in New Britain, Conn., and raised 
in New York City. He moved to Hollywood around 1940. He was declared 
physically unfit for the military and spent World War II working in 
the film industry. He also joined the Communist Party and was active 
in the Screen Readers Guild. Mr. Gordon eventually quit the party 
after revelations of Stalin's crimes, his daughter said.

In the 1950s, Mr. Gordon was subpoenaed to testify before the House 
Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating Communist 
influence in Hollywood. He was never called before the panel, but an 
acquaintance named him before the committee, and he was fired from a 
studio and blacklisted along with hundreds of other film industry workers.

Though condemned as un-American, Mr. Gordon never thought his 
political views were undermining the nation, Mr. Robb said.

"They were all superpatriotic. They just thought the U.S. was going 
down the wrong road," Mr. Robb said.

His daughter added, "He could argue anybody under the table."

For a decade, Mr. Gordon couldn't work under his own name but 
continued to churn out films using pseudonyms. He spent several years 
in Spain, where he wrote and produced movies. His last movie, 
"Surfacing," was in 1981.

In 1999, Mr. Gordon took the lead in protesting the awarding of an 
honorary Oscar to the director Elia Kazan, who had named names before 
the House Un-American Activities Committee.

"He helped to support an oppressive regime that did incalculable 
damage to America and abroad," Mr. Gordon later wrote in The Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Gordon wrote two books: "Hollywood Exile, or How I Learned to 
Love the Blacklist" (1999), and "The Gordon File: A Screenwriter 
Recalls 20 Years of FBI Surveillance" (2004), which was based on his 
300-page F.B.I. file.

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