For many Hollywood studio heads, producers, and writers, the postwar sense of dread, of criminality unpunished, and of corrupt or indifferent cops that came to characterize the postwar film noir genre was borne out of prewar experiences with Nazis, fascists, and government authorities in 1930s-1940s Los Angeles. Indeed, no film noir crime drama rivaled the real-life threats faced by Hollywood Jews in the late 1930s and early 1940s. When Nazi death plots and plans to blow up nearby military installations were ignored by local and federal authorities, Hollywood Jews responded by secretly funding a spy ring that operated from August 1933 until the end of WWII. It was a good thing they did, for their spies uncovered a series of death plots aimed at attracting international attention to the Nazi cause and sparking a wave of deadly pogroms throughout America. Their most nefarious plot involved blowing up the homes of 24 of Hollywood's most famous figures: 22 industry Jews (including Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, Paul Muni, Eddie Cantor, B.P. Schulberg) and two Christian movie stars known to be too friendly to Jews, Charlie Chaplin and James Cagney, who spoke fluent Yiddish. In this lecture, Steven J. Ross will argue that the dark cynicism and sense of corruption that characterized film noir came in part from the additional discovery that Nazi and fascist plotters were aided by members of the LAPD and the LA County Sheriff's Department.
New York City, NY; NYC