John Garfield, Film Noir and the Hollywood Blacklist - Part 2

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During World War Two,  John Garfield, frustrated that he could not enlist because of his heart condition, founded the Hollywood Canteen with Bette Davis.  It was a club that offered food and entertainment to American servicemen.  For five years he entertained the troops all over the world.

According to Robert Nott, author of the excellent biography about John Garfield:  He Ran All the Way, "Garfield has to be considered as one of Warner Bros. top five stars from 1939-1946. But he was never the top star. Cagney, Robinson, and even George Raft dominated the period from 1939-1942; Bogart broke through as a star in the 1941/1942 period, eclipsing Garfield in the early 1940s, and Errol Flynn was always more popular (though he didn’t play the same sort of roles) from the late 1930s to at least the early 40s," said Nott.

Late in his career, Garfield starred in a number of film noirs that have stood the test of time. "Garfield’s position as a film noir icon is somewhat assured, and even younger people who follow the noir movement know his work. Today’s critics and historians are, in fact, more likely to pay attention to the post-war, non-Warner Bros. noirs that Garfield acted in during the late 1940s," said Nott.

"Thanks to the Internet you can easily access a number of websites, online essays, and noir-related articles about Garfield, but it’s difficult to say that today’s critics view him as any more important to the noir movement than, say, Robert Mitchum, Dick Powell, or Bogart. You’re probably more likely to find a film festival built around Bogart than any of the others mentioned, in fact. But more attention is being paid thanks to the Internet, a not-too-distant Turner Classic Movies documentary about Garfield, and the continued popularity of DVDs and home-video options."

Director John Berry  directed Garfield's last film.  He has said that the tension was high during filming of the film noir,   He Ran All The Way due to the pressures from HUAC. Berry, several writers, and others connected to the film were also under a lot of pressure to testify and admit they were part of some kind of alleged communist conspiracy.

What followed the making of the film was a complicated public and personal ordeal that damaged Garfield’s career and his health. Under pressure from HUAC to testify, Garfield cut a deal and took a “diminished Fifth," which allowed him to talk about his personal matters but not implicate his friends and family. But after a lengthy interrogation, the Committee pressed him about those close to him.

His testimony, to some on the Committee, was disingenuous, particularly when he said he did not know any Communists. There were rumors  that he was going to be indicted for perjury, and the right wing press, including Walter Winchell, turned against him. He agreed to talk to the FBI to try to clear his name, but would not name names.

The FBI wanted him to, incredibly, say his wife was a Communist Party member (she was). He responded with an expletive. Other HUAC witnesses, when asked whether it was possible not to know any communists in Hollywood, scoffed at Garfield’s assertion.

Garfield had been a supporter of left-wing causes, but not a communist. He supported the Committee for the First Amendment, which opposed governmental investigations of political beliefs. After his testimony, his movie career dried up. His forced testimony before the committee had severely damaged his reputation.

According to author Jake Hinkson in an article he wrote for the Noir City Sentinel in 2009: “These people  were all small fish, though. What the Committee really wanted was someone big. That meant a bona fide movie star, and almost from the beginning they had their eye on John Garfield. He was dragged before the Committee where he denied knowing anything about Communism. He denied having ever met a single Communist. These were blatant lies (his wife Robbie had been a party member), but Garfield had never been a party member, and he had no desire to put the finger on any of his friends just to save his career.

"The Committee asked him about John Berry and Hugo Butler, both of whom had fled the country. Garfield said nothing. They asked him who wrote He Ran All The Way, and he didn’t mention (Dalton) Trumbo, (one of the writers). Still, the Committee hounded him, kept after him about an issue of The Daily Worker that he admitted to once having read, pressed him on the difference between being a liberal and being a pink-o. Mostly, though, they wanted names. It was all the Committee ever seemed to want: just give us the names of some of your friends, and we’ll let you go.

“When Garfield refused to turn rat, HUAC gave his testimony to the FBI and asked them to build a perjury case. The studios stopped hiring him. One of the biggest movie stars of the 1940s—a man with two Oscar nominations and millions of fans—was done in Hollywood.

“The FBI started tailing him, eventually compiling a thousand-page file on the comings and goings of an out-of-work actor. Panicked, Garfield wrote an article for Look magazine called “I Was A Sucker For A Left Hook” in which he denounced Communism and said he’d been duped into supporting various leftist causes. The magazine refused to publish it. ‘I’ll act anywhere,’ he told a columnist in late 1951. But his career was over. In May of 1952, he died suddenly of a heart attack.”

Director Berry, a native New Yorker, who left the country because of the blacklist and directed films in France for decades, said the pressure to cooperate with the Committee was very powerful. “The tension to play ball must have crossed his mind. This may sound romantic but I think what happened was, faced with this option, Julius Garfinkle of the Bronx said to the John Garfield of Hollywood, ‘You can’t do this to me.’ And John Garfield packed his bags and died. The only way to clear himself was to rat and he couldn’t do that.”

Visit your local library to obtain resources about John Garfield, film noir and the Hollywood Blacklist.

Read Part 1 of John Garfield, Film Noir and the Hollywood Blacklist.

Resources:

There's a Facebook page for fans of John Garfield.

If you love film noir, check out the Film Noir Foundation.

Writer and film critic Kim Morgan's blog: Sunset Gun.

@ your library interview with film noir historian Alan K. Rode - Film Noir--Stylish Crime Dramas that Stand the Test of Time

At the Center of the Storm: He Ran All the Way and the Hollywood Blacklist (PDF)

Books about John Garfield:

John Garfield: His Life and Films
James N. Beaver, Jr., (1978).

The Films of John Garfield
Howard Gelman, (1975).

John Garfield: The Illustrated Career in Films and on Stage
Patrick J. McGrath, (1993).

John Garfield
George Morris, (1977).

He Ran All the Way: A Biography of John Garfield
Robert Nott, (2003).

City Boys: Cagney, Bogart, Garfield
Robert L. Sklar, (1992).

Body and Soul: The Story of John Garfield
Larry Swindel, (1975).

Books about film noir:

Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir
Eddie Muller - Film Noir Foundation founder, (1998).

Dark City Dames: The Wicked Women of Film Noir
Eddie Muller - Film Noir Foundation founder, (2001).

The Art of Noir: Posters and Graphics from the Classic Film Noir Era
Eddie Muller - Film Noir Foundation founder, (2002).

Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy
Alan Rode - Film Noir Foundation Board of Director, (2008).

The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir
Foster Hirsch (Film Noir Foundation Board Member)

Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir
Foster Hirsch - Film Noir Foundation Board Member, (1999).