Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity

I have to admit, I had no idea who Marsha Hunt was, and I have seen many of the films that she was in. It's not that she made a bad impression on me, just that she left no lasting impression in the films themselves. After finding out what a heart and a brain she has, I want to rewatch her films and see what I've been missing.

I've heard stories about the blacklists many times. Usually not in great detail. But this documentary really struck me. How ironic that the US would hardly be finished fighting fascism in Europe and then turn around and have the government and the film industry that it cowed behave like fascists in regards to actors and writers in their employ. They were literally blacklisting people because they had gone to Communist meetings in the 1930s. Versus what? Think what a great success capitalism was in 1935 as people were starving in the streets? And all Marsha Hunt really ever did was openly disagree with this behavior of her government, which is her right.

I guess what made this documentary be a such a standout was that so much of this story is being told by Marsha herself, not out of bitterness but as a cautionary tale. She's had the good fortune to live to be 103 as I am writing this.

She also goes into great detail about her trip around the world in 1955 and how what she saw on this trip caused her to work for the United Nations for many years. It is truly an inspiring story. And somehow Eddie Muller and film noir ends up part of the story too. Highly recommended.

I knew little of Marsha Hunt other than the few films I had seen her in - then I was informed of this fascinating documentary and I became aware of what a truly admirable trailblazer she was. The really wonderful thing is that Marsha is still with us and was very much a part of working with Roger C. Memos and his crew o f telling her story. My admiration of this lovely lady is boundless and I think this film is both informative and extremely compelling viewing. Talk about MUST-SEE -- this is definitely in that category!

A loving and revealing documentary about an extraordinary woman, this shows Ms. Hunt to be, among other things, a good actress, a fierce advocate of human rights, and a survivor of Hollywood's golden age with amazing recall. Generous with film clips and interviews of other survivors we're pleased to meet (Norman Corwin, Norman Lloyd, Walter Bernstein, Margaret O'Brien), it chronicles how she was blacklisted and not only survived it, but was motivated to become a force for good, in so many ways, notably as a hardworking UN functionary. It's also a sweet love story: After a brief first marriage (and they stayed civil and even worked with each other later), she met a perfect mate, the screenwriter Robert Presnell, and really did live happily ever after. She's such a force of nature that we're kind of left wondering what aspects of her we're not seeing, but what we do see is lovely and impressive and inspiring. Really, after watching this, you may be motivated to go out and volunteer for something.

Good documentary that would have been better had its subject been less insistent that it not focus on the blacklist which, with apologies to Ms. Hunt's solid acting career and admirable social activism, is the only sensible reason to learn about her life. When it does deal with those horrible events of the late 40s and early 50s, though, this work is riveting with the anecdote, previously unknown to me, about the debasement of John Huston alone worth the price of admission. As a previous reviewer wrote I will have a harder time watching this first rate director and second rate human being's work from here on out. Give it a B. PS...Glad to know Ms. Hunt's still kicking. Wonder if she and Norman Lloyd ever get together?

A thousand thanks to Roger Memos and his team for creating this fire documentary. It is a story I did not know and it is a fascinating one!