Guilty By Suspicion

Because of the built-in publicity factor, Hollywood was particularly hard hit by the blacklisting craze that stemmed from Senator Joe McCarthy's Communist witch-hunt during the 1950s. Writer/director Irwin Winkler (best known as the producer of GoodFellas, Rocky, Raging Bull, and The Right Stuff, among others) offers a solid, if workmanlike, docudrama about the total hell that the implicated endured. Robert De Niro is mesmerizing--as usual--as David Merrill, a young upcoming director who's referred to as David Zanuck's "golden boy." When Merrill's name surfaces before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he is asked to clear himself (a process which essentially means naming others). Dismissing the whole investigation as absurd, Merrill decides to ignore the call to testify only to find one after another door closing in his face. A subplot concerning Merrill's divorce with his wife (Annette Benning), and his relationship with his young son, serves merely to add a little fullness to the main black-and-white First Amendment battle. Not as good as Martin Ritt's 1976 black comedy on the subject, The Front, Winkler's film is partially redeemed by De Niro's commanding and understated performance. An optional purchase. (R. Pitman)