{"product_id":"producer-of-controversy-stanley-kramer-hollywood-liberalism-and-the-cold-war-9780700624966","title":"Producer of Controversy: Stanley Kramer, Hollywood Liberalism, and the Cold War","description":"With films ranging from \u003ci\u003eHigh Noon\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eGuess Who's Coming to Dinner\u003c\/i\u003e, Stanley Kramer (1913-2001) was one of the most successful and prolific director-producers of his day. But even as critics praised his courage in taking on such issues as nuclear war, racism, fascism, and the battle between science and religion, others condemned his work as \"emptily pretentious\" and \"hollow, falsely sentimental, overproduced.\" Whether Kramer was \"one of the great filmmakers of all time\" (Kevin Spacey at the Golden Globe Awards) or \"one of Hollywood's worst directors\" (preeminent film critic Andrew Sarris in \u003ci\u003eThe Village Voice\u003c\/i\u003e), he had a strong and undeniable influence on American culture during the Cold War. \u003ci\u003eProducer of Controversy\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book to take a close-up look at Kramer's career, films, and liberal politics in an effort to explain his contributions and historical significance. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKramer learned filmmaking within the old studio system, but over a career spanning forty years he did much to shape the independent moviemaking that emerged after World War II. Jennifer Frost pays particular attention to four of his key \"message movies\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Defiant Ones\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOn the Beach\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eJudgment at Nuremberg\u003c\/i\u003e--to show how Kramer's controversial films opened up public debate about the most important issues of his time--among average filmgoers as well as professional critics, political commentators, and public figures. In this context, she for the first time fully documents the Hollywood Right's attacks on Kramer in the 1950s; details his resistance to the anticommunist Red Scare and the Hollywood blacklist; exposes his role as a cultural diplomat with the Soviet Union; and reveals his important contribution to the liberal and radical politics of the 1960s. Her book is at once an absorbing work of cultural history and a thoroughgoing reassessment of Stanley Kramer's place in the pantheon of American filmmakers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrost, Jennifer:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Jennifer Frost is associate professor of history at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eAn Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHedda Hopper's Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"University Press of Kansas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50872767611154,"sku":"9780700624966","price":43.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8ddf13f2-f300-4a51-8ced-87df20ca1999.jpg?v=1737909363","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/producer-of-controversy-stanley-kramer-hollywood-liberalism-and-the-cold-war-9780700624966","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}