Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1968. január-június (22. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)

1968-04-18 / 16. szám

Thursday, April 18, 1968.

AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ — HUNGARIAN WORD

13

I WOULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN

Unusual before an interview, I did a lot of talking to myself first. Not because I found it difficult to frame my questions. As a matter of fact, the ifaeme was right at hand. Dalton Trumbo was in Budapest as the screenwriter for Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer’s film, “The Fixer.” Hungary had been chosen as the locale of the adaptation of the famous novel by Bernard Malamud. For three months, an international crew of actors, actresses, directors, cameramen, technicians and administrative personnel had been roaming around the country shooting film at a terrific clip at the dynamic pace set by Director John Frankenheimer. So as you can see, I had plenty to inquire about. But things were different in this case. Dalton Trumbo was not only a famous screenwriter with scripts for such films as “Spartacus” and “Exodus” to his credit, but he was also one of the members qf the “Hollywood Ten.”

Now I know that at this point, many of my younger readers will wrinkle their brows and ask, who were they? In a word, they were ten prominent Hollywood personalities who were subpoened by the United States House Unamerican Activities Committee to give information about alleged Communist activities in the film industry. Dalton Trumbo was one of those who refused to testify on the legal grounds of the rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This was one of the first and certainly one of the most sensational rounds in the notorious McCarthyite campaign in the late 1950’s to stifle progressive and opposition opinion in the country. In spite of the validity of his argument, Dalton Trumbo was found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to imprisonment.

Blacklisted

, What followed his release, was even worse, because fór thirteen years he could not work under his own name. He was blacklisted all that time and managed to scrape together a living for his family by writing scripts that other people signed or by using pseudonyms. Of course he could not conceal his talent and very special imprint on any script that he wrote so that the general public, or those who were interested anyway, could always tell a Trumbo story when it appeared on screen. The situation reached its most ridiculous heights' when Dalton Trumbo, writing under the pseudonym Robert Rich won an Oscar award for the script of the film: “The Brave One.”

Just before I went to see Mr. Trumbo at the Royal Hotel in Budapest, I read an interview he had given to the Herald Tribune in which he was asked about those experiences, and it was my feeling that the poor man was probably sick to death of always being interviewed on the same subject. After all, he was a screenwriter and one of the best. So. I made up my mind to ask him about the picture and nothing more. Mr. Trumbo received me by opening the door with one hand and holding a small black terrier in the other. Beepo was nine months old and very friendly. We set up the tape recorder in the large sitting room which Mr. Trumbo had managed to give a warm person- nal touch with photographs of his daughter and grandchildren. Beepo was banished to the bedroom unfortunately because I couldn’t hold him

: jÄ!fSA,Cfl

[ REFRIGERATION & TV. j

I 168-14 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, L.I., N.Y. a

£ (8th Ave Subway 168th St. állomás)

iSZÍNES televíziók\

J Jégszekrények — Mosógépek — Gáz- és vil- JJ { lanykályhák — HI-FI — Stereo — Rádiók — £ ® Porszívó készülékek — Legolcsóbban!

5 Legjobb gyártmányok. — Gyári gamrrrra " "

KEDVEZŐ FIZETÉSI FELTÉTELEK!

íBllllliii]iiBBaaBaHia9BMMMBBaaBBiaHa"

in my lap and manage an interview at the same time.

Why Budapest?

True to my resolve, I asked him about the locations he had seen and about his experiences. Mr. Trumbo, with a delightful flair for colourful description, told me about the caves and dungeons dripping with water that had been used in many parts of the film, but also about the magnificent Gount Széchenyi Library that had been specially redone for the film. Since the original location of the novel is in Kiev, the question naturally followed, why pick Hungary at all? The answer was a bit surprising. Kiev was very heavily damaged during the war and a new modern city had taken its place. The story of “The Fixer” takes place in 1911—1912, so Kiev was obviously not suitable. Budapest had. also suffered tremendous damage during the siege of 1944—45, but in its restoration, great care had been taken to keep the Castle Hill area in its original style complete with gas lamps. And MGM arrived at the very last moment, just before Buda Castle itself was to be demolished and rebuilt. Mr. Trumbo spoke with great appreciation of the cooperation he has received from the Hungarian government and the Hungarian crew. But here let me quote his exact words regarding the makeup of the company and some of the confusion that ensued.

“Amusing things — ha said — do happen all the time when you have a French-speaking camera crew, a French-speaking associate producer, an American writer and director, an English cast, a Hungarian production manager, a Hungarian first assistant director, and a completely Hungarian crew. You can imagine that in the course of getting something done,—” “How do you ever get anything done?” — I asked. “Well, that’s the marvel of it. That is due to the Hungarian crew. In this Babel of tongues and confusion of languages, with all the mistakes that are done on both sides, we don’t quite know how we have made a picture.”

The Story

Here Mr. Trumbo paused and looked at me with big astonished eyes behind his sedate spectacles. He continued: “And we have, I think, made a good one. And we have received hard work and sweat, and cooperation and the most desperate desire to understand us from the Hungarian crew that you can imagine. But there have been some hilarious moments and there have also been some moments of hot temper—Hungarians being no more docile than any other peole, don’t you think?” I answered: “We think it’s the paprika we eat.” At this, he rewarded me with a heartfelt burst of laughter. But then we got on to the theme of “The Fixer,” a story that is remotely based on a case that aroused world-wide protest in 1911—12 involving.a Jewish man who is accused of a ritualistic murder. He is thrown in prison and according to Mr. Trumbo, “our man is kept in complete isolation and has no idea that his case has aroused world-wide attention. What it amounts to is that they are asking this man who is totally uncommitted to any ideology, who is not even essentially Jewish in his religion because ha has abandoned religion; he is an uncommitted man who is asked to confess to a crime which will implicate not only himself but people in a terrible tragedy. And he has to progress by himself step by step to a point until he realizes that he cannot lie, that he cannot tell the lie. Finally they offer him his freedom after three years of brutal treatment. They offer him his freedom if he will tell the lie. He refuses, and then they offer him his freedom anyway, because they wish to avoid a trial. And he demands a trial and the story ends as after all his hardships, he drives through the streets of Kiev, under escort. and walks into the courthouse.”

Here Mr. Trumbo and I got involved in a debate about the value of that one-man battle in the light of the terrible tragedy that the Jewish people went through during the war. But Mr. Trumbo pointed to a deeper meaning in the story. “Fundamentally/- he said, “the victory he has achieved,

has been first over himself, over the temptation to lie and to involve others in a state-demanded lie. And secondly, it has been a triumph over the state, because ha has forced them to bring him to trial. ... He has won the victory for himself, and quite incidentally, for other people.” Here, at this point, I think the parallel to Mr. Trumbo’s own experiences was so obvious that I broke my resolve. Very hesitantly and apologetically I said to him: “Mr. Trumbo, naturally when one speaks with you one has the very great temptation to talk about political issues but one avoids it because you are a writer, and I think you have the right to speak as a filmscriptwriter. There was one very touching sentence in your interview that I read in the Herald Tribune where you said that people tend to think of you rather as a case and not as a writer.”

Here came the jovial laugh again. “Oh, yes. Well, it’s perfectly natural when you are involved in a celebrated legal case, criminal case involving politics as I and others were that really turns out to have been the most important contribution you made in your life... It is an act which ultimately will be remembered as a legal landmark and the memory of the people will fade and of their work will fade, which is quite all right.”

I asked him: “Would you do it all over again?” The answer came without any hesitation at all: “Of course, I would. And will, if necessary.”

Rose Pataky

Johnson egészségügyi programja: egy csepp a tengerben

Johnson elnök, az egyre tornyosuló egészség- ügyi költségek redukálására és az egészségi szolgálatok kiterjesztésére javaslatot küldött a kongresszushoz. Mindkét szempontból a javaslatok teljesen elégtelenek és azt a keveset is, amit ajánlanak, egész biztosan a kongresszus lényegesen redukálni fogja. Az elnök maga is úgy szövegézte meg az üzenetet, hogy kimutatta a legégetőbb szükségleteket, amelyeket “aránylag szerény költekezéssel” lehet kielégiteni.

Miből áll a javaslat? Az elnök kéri, hogy az orvostani intézeteknek nyújtott szövetségi segélyt olymódon szervezzék át, hogy az serkentsd több5 orvos kiképzését és redukálja az orvosképzés idejét. A kormány nem emelné az orvosképző intézeteknek eddig nyújtott kiutalást, Hanem a kiutalt összegeket egyes intézetekre koncentrálná. Ettől a ‘csöbörből vödörbe’ való intézkedéstől nem lehet eredményt várni a rendkívül nagy orvoshiány pótlására és az orvosképzés költségeinek redukálására.

Az elnök felhatalmazást kér arra, hogy a kormány szigorúbban korlátozhassa, hogy mennyit fizet kórházaknak, szolgálatokért, orvosságért a Medicare, a Medicaid s a gyermekegészségi programokon belül. Ennek egyik célja, hogy megszüntesse a “szükségtelen kórházi kezeléseket”!? (Azt kérdezzük, ugyan ki ment eddig privát élvezetből kórházba?)

A javaslat 58 millió dollárral kivánja emelni a gyermek- és anya-egészségi szolgálatokat, kéri egy- népszaporulati tanulmányi bizottság felállítását, a: születéskorlátozás elősegítésére; elősegítené és kiterjesztené az egészségügyi téren való alkalmazás, lehetőségét.

Az elnök külön kihangsúlyozta a rendkivül magas gyógyszerárak csökkentésének szükségességét: “nem volna szabad az adófizetőt kényszeríteni, hogy 11 dollárt fizessen orvosságért, ha $1.25-ért ugyanolyan hatásosat lehet kapni. Ennek engedélyezése nem más, mint privát polgárok hatósági; jóváhagyással való kirablása”, mondja az elnök: üzenete.

Nem vitatjuk az elnök állítását. A közönség ki-;, rablása, különösen a gyógyszerek terén, hihetet-- len és szemérmetlen méreteket ölt.

De a gyógyszeripar képviselői máris felvértezték; magukat az árszabályozás elleni harcra, és várható,) hogy kijáróik majd alaposan meggyengitik azj amúgy is elég udvarias formában megfogalmazott: javaslatot.

..., • f

KIOLVASTAD A LAPOT?

ADD TOVÁBB!

MAS IS TANULHAT BELŐLE!