8. Dalton Trumbo admitted his contempt for Congress
After serving a sentence of 11 months in prison Dalton Trumbo returned to screenwriting, through the use of subterfuge. He wrote under pseudonyms, producing an astonishing number of scripts. He lived in Mexico, in semi-exile, while he worked on B-movies. Often when adapting books for the screen, he persuaded the book’s author to accept the screenwriter’s credit. The caution proved prudent, the blacklist did not end with the Hollywood Ten. Instead, the pursuit of communists and other “subversives” continued in Hollywood following the initial HUAC investigations. J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI joined in wholeheartedly, as did other government agencies, newspapers, and magazines.
Many years later, Dalton Trumbo reflected on his conviction and expressed his views with dripping sarcasm. In a documentary film about the Hollywood Ten in 1976, Trumbo said, “As far as I was concerned, it was a completely just verdict. I had contempt for that Congress, and have had contempt for it ever since”. In 1951 Edward Dmytryk, who had returned to America and was serving his sentence, admitted he was a former communist and offered to testify before the HUAC, naming others. In April 1951, Dmytryk testified naming several members of the Communist Party in Hollywood. His testimony and denunciation of communism allowed him to return to work in Hollywood, while his former codefendants remained in Federal custody.
