Hollywood Exile, or How I Learned to Love the Blacklist

January 4, 1999
Oddly, this colorful, personal recollection by screenwriter/producer Gordon is a success story, as he was eventually associated with some 20 films, working with stars like Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and David Niven, and directors like Nicholas Ray and Frank Capra. He worked for seven years as a Paramount reader and assistant story editor, but was fired after he was named during the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. "The fact that I never testified did not relieve me of my blacklist status. I had to work under a pseudonym... for about ten years until the blacklist was broken." Recalling when his lifelong friend Julian Zimet (aka Julian Halevy) wrote The Young Lovers, Gordon notes, "Even among New York publishers, the blacklist issue was raised, and Julian had to adopt a pen name for his book." The two friends relocated to Europe, where they collaborated on a stack of uncredited screenplays. Gordon's long-time affiliation with the Philip Yordan-Samuel Bronston Madrid studio is the core of this book, which offers illuminating insights into the era of "runaway productions," when historical epics were made economically in Spain. Woven throughout is an absorbing profile of the energetic, enigmatic Yordan, whose entrepreneurial lifestyle and "whirlwind career" would make a movie in itself. Gordon never pulls his punches in this anecdotal autobiography, filled with intimate details and vivid novelistic passages. A born storyteller, he writes with warmth and humor, and there's an emotional edge to his razor-sharp recall. 33 b&w photos.

November 15, 1999
Gordon, a member of the Committee Against Silence, has written a personal and political account that's as engaging and insightful as Walter Bernstein's Inside Out (LJ 9/15/96). Gordon was a reader and assistant story editor at Paramount for seven years--until he was named by a "friendly" witness in 1947. Although subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, he never testified. Subsequently, he forged a career as a freelance screenwriter (Hellcats of the Navy and 55 Days at Peking) and a producer. Gordon treats the Communist Party evenhandedly--speaking fondly of its goal of democratic socialism and frankly criticizing its weaknesses. He unashamedly discusses his party membership and the catastrophic personal costs he paid for it (including financial ruin and loss of his passport). The book is also effective as a reminiscence of his enduring marriage to wife Jean and his encounters with film personalities (including a laugh-out-loud exchange between Paul Lukas and Ava Gardner). Recommended for academic and public libraries.--Bruce Henson, Georgia Institute of Technology Lib. & Information Ctr., Atlanta

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 1999
During the years of the Hollywood blacklist, when left-wing writers were formally banned from working on major studios' feature films, screenwriter Gordon led an ironic existence. A member of the Communist Party, he was subpoenaed by the dreaded House Un-American Affairs Committee but never testified. His summons, though, was enough, and Gordon was forced to spend the bulk of his career working abroad under a pseudonym or uncredited. But living in Madrid and Paris in the '50s and '60s, when the dollar was king, Gordon, his wife, and daughter lived like royalty. He wrote mostly science fiction and B movies. He did pen some notable films, such as the original "The Thin Red Line" and "Hellcats of the Navy," for which he wrote love scenes for anti-Communists Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Gordon's plush expatriate life is tempered by thoughts of what his career could have been if not confined to a furtive existence. Still, his is an intriguing story of triumphing over adversity during a black era in U.S. history. ((Reviewed November 15, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)