
Writing
Lillian Hellman
Born 1905-06-20 · New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist views and political activism. She was blacklisted after her appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) at the height of the anti-communist campaigns of 1947–1952. Although she continued to work on Broadway in the 1950s, her blacklisting by the American film industry caused a drop in her income. Many praised Hellman for refusing to answer questions by HUAC, but others believed, despite her denial, that she had belonged to the Communist Party. As a playwright, Hellman had many successes on Broadway, including The Children's Hour, The Little Foxes and its sequel Another Part of the Forest, Watch on the Rhine, The Autumn Garden, and Toys in the Attic. She adapted her semi-autobiographical play The Little Foxes into a screenplay, which starred Bette Davis. Hellman was romantically involved with fellow writer and political activist Dashiell Hammett, who also was blacklisted for 10 years; the couple never married.
Acting credits
6.5At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Julia
1977
NRA documentary on the film director William Wyler (1902-1981), this feature was conceived by his daughter, Catherine, as a loving tribute. Utilizing a wealth of film clips, many in black and white, the movie features interviews with Bette Davis, Samantha Eggar, Greer Garson, Lillian Hellman, Audrey Hepburn, Charlton Heston, John Huston, Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, Ralph Richardson, Terence Stamp, Barbra Streisand, Billy Wilder, and the director himself, interviewed only a few days before he died in 1981.
Directed by William Wyler
1986
5.4An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.
The Rehearsal
1974
A one-hour public television (PBS) biography of Dashiell Hammett, creator of the "hardboiled" modern detective novel and author of "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man." It follows Hammett's life from Pinkerton detective in San Francisco to his career as fiction and screen writer, companion of playwright Lillian Hellman, and leftwing political activist. The biography investigates why Hammett stopped writing at the height of his fame.
The Case of Dashiell Hammett
1982
Behind the camera
7.1The escape of Bubber Reeves from prison affects the inhabitants of a small Southern town.
The Chase
1966
7.5In 1900, a clan attempts to strike a deal with a Chicago industrialist to get him to build cotton mills in their Deep South town.
The Little Foxes
1941
7.0The lives of a young man and woman, an infamous gangster and a group of street kids converge one day in a volatile New York City slum.
Dead End
1937
7.1Close friends Martha and Karen build a private boarding school together with the aid of the local doctor Joe. The school takes off and many students enroll, one of whom is a trouble-maker who tells a scandalous lie that threatens to destroy the trio's lives.
These Three
1936
6.2Kitty Vane, Alan Trent, and Gerald Shannon have been inseparable friends since childhood. Kitty has always known she would marry one of them, but has waited until the beginning of World War I before finally choosing Alan. Gerald graciously gives them his blessing. Then, Gerald and Alan go to war. Angered over a misunderstanding involving Alan and Kitty, Gerald sends Alan on a dangerous mission that will change all their lives forever.
The Dark Angel
1935
6.0A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941. Later re-edited and released as "Armored Attack."
The North Star
1943
6.7Joris Ivens’s advocacy documentary for the Republican cause intercuts a besieged Madrid with a nearby village digging an irrigation canal, linking the war to bread, land, and survival. Produced by the writers’ collective Contemporary Historians, edited by Helen van Dongen, scored by Marc Blitzstein, and narrated in its U.S. version by Ernest Hemingway (after an initial Orson Welles track), it blends frontline reportage with persuasion against Franco’s forces and their German–Italian backers.
The Spanish Earth
1937
Candide falls in love with the beautiful but materialistic Cunegonde. Her barron father doesn't approve of the affair so Candide wanders, meeting all the misfortunes along the way.
Candide
2007
NRWritten and set during the rise of Hitler’s Germany, Watch on the Rhine is a play about an American family, suddenly awakened to the danger threatening its liberty.
Watch on the Rhine
2021
6.2A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941. Re-edited version of The North Star (1943), to remove positive references to Soviet Union and include narration about the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.
Armored Attack!
1957
NRAdaptation of Jean Anouilh's 1952 play about Joan of Arc, the young girl who led the French to victory against the English in the Hundred Years' War.
The Lark
1957
10.0A television adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play about the Hubbards, a rich Southern family of greedy, ruthless individuals.
Another Part of the Forest
1972
Concert performance of Bernstein's Candide, with additional connecting texts by Loriot (Vicco von Bülow). The world is absurd, and no one understands that better than Loriot. In this witty and whimsical adaptation of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta Candide, the legendary German comedian takes on the role of narrator, guiding the audience through Voltaire’s tale of optimism gone wrong. With sharp humor and elegant storytelling, Loriot adds his signature touch to Candide’s misadventures across war-torn lands, ill-fated romances, and philosophical catastrophes—all set to Bernstein’s dazzling score. A delightful blend of high culture and comedy, this Candide is as satirical as it is spectacular.
Leonard Bernstein: Candide
2003
8.0Always the diplomat, Alex Hazen is slow to take sides in Europe of the 1920s and 1930s. Cassie Bowman wants him to be more decisive and leaves him in Rome just as Mussolini is coming to power. There Alex marries Emily, daughter of a newspaper publisher who hires Cassie for his Paris bureau -- just before retiring from active management of his paper. Alex and Emily's son Sam, recently returned from active duty in World War II, learns the whole story one night in Washington when Emily invites Cassie to dinner. Sam has a story to tell, too.
The Searching Wind
1946
NRAndrew Rodman is running the family business and failing at it. The workers are out on strike and things are getting desperate. “Papa would have known what to do,” his sister Cora nags, “and without wasting time and money.” But it’s too late, Rodman is bringing in strikebreakers, naively failing to anticipate the disastrous impact that this will have on his family and their place in the community where they have lived for generations.
Days To Come
2021
10.0The story is set during the South American Wars of Independence. Simón Bolivar, the liberator, has escaped from Spanish custody with the aid of an idealistic Spanish officer, Captain Montserrat. The Spanish commander, Colonel Izquierdo ('left' in Spanish), threatens Montserrat with torture to find out where Bolivar can be recaptured.
Montserrat
1971