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HOLLYWOOD/FILM INDUSTRY SURVEILLANCE FBI FILES
Surveillance of Hollywood FBI Files
2,000 pages of files copied from FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., covering the FBI investigation, Communist Infiltration-Motion Picture Industry (COMPIC). The FBI investigated the Communist Party's infiltration of the motion picture industry from 1942 to 1958. Ten motion picture personalities, who were subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, were convicted of contempt of Congress for refusal to answer whether or not they belonged to the Communist Party. Files gives the FBI's history of Communists and leftists in the motion picture industry back to the 1930's.
Files include FBI "reviews" of main stream films it believed communist writers, directors, and actors successfully inserted communist propaganda into. Analysis of the plot points of Frank Capra's movie "It's a Wonderful Life", finds communist tricks to make bankers and the rich look bad. Analysis cites a comparison of the movie to a Russian film made 15 years earlier titled "The Letter."
Files include reporting from informers, including president of the Screen Actors' Guild Ronald Reagan. Files names hundreds of influential writers, actors, directors, producers, union leaders, and studio executives. Investigations chronicle the working of major studios such as Paramount, RKO, and Warner Brothers, and the power struggles between the studios and studio management and labor unions. Files document FBI support of anti-Communist organizations.
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