What a jerk. Wasn't Kirk Douglas a commie? That's how he was depicted in Trumbo. I think?

Thanks for bringing up Trumbo. I've got to put that on my must see list.

[http://deadline.com/2015/11/kirk-douglas-speaks-out-trumbo-career-threatened-blacklist-1201629542/

@clunybrown2017 said:

Thanks for bringing up Trumbo. I've got to put that on my must see list.

[http://deadline.com/2015/11/kirk-douglas-speaks-out-trumbo-career-threatened-blacklist-1201629542/

Thanks for the link. It doesn't state whether Kirk Douglas was a commie or not. But it does show that he definitely had communist friends and helped as many on the blacklist as he could.

As far as Trumbo is concerned, you're not missing anything. It's still a better film than most of that year. The writing wasn't that great and some of the performances were overzealous. I liked the set designs and costumes though.

Kirk Douglas wasn't a communist, but he was originally from an eastern European Jewish family, far from the blond WASP that he portrayed. Like so many others, whether you were communist or not, he felt you were entitled to free thought and speech in the US. Kirk tried to protect and help people on the blacklist when he could. KD thinking that Joan was bats was probably the predominant opinion of most who had worked with her in Hollywood. After all, she did refuse to publicize her own picture "Baby Jane" knowing that it meant losing money in her own bank account. We've seen her be insanely jealous of more than Bette Davis on the set too.

Kirk Douglas wrote his autobiography (The Ragman's Son) around 1990 and it was a very interesting read.

https://www.amazon.com/Ragmans-Son-Kirk-Douglas/dp/0671737899

For some reason, I'm finding inserting this in link form challenging. Apologies. There's also a book that he wrote on the making of Spartacus and the blacklist on the same page for anyone interested.