It is true that Dalton Trumbo, probably the best-known of the Hollywood Ten, once said that in examining that period, don't look for heroes, don't look for villains.  There were only victims.  

TServo4 wrote:
Back to IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, though... it's funny that while the film is heralded as one of the 3-D greats from the '50s (although in many ways, it is), as there are some fatal photography flaws in it. I only recently noticed that the opening shot of the spaceship crashing is in reverse stereo (ie. the left and right eye are switched), while the titles are correct!

There's also an aerial shot of the linemen's truck that's reversed so that the lines seem to be cutting through the truck.
 
   Wikipedia is enormously more accurate than in.  But here are a couple of other references I just Googled up.  I have a big bunch of books on the Blacklist; when I find the box they're in, I'll be glad to post everything relevant about William Alland and his little pal Martin Berkeley.  As I said before, Berkeley named more people in HUAC testimony than anyone else--but I've also read claims that it was Alland himself who informed on the most friends.

"Two close associates of Welles, actor-producer William Alland and writer Elizabeth (Betty) Wilson, named names to HUAC to save their own careers."  From What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? by Joseph McBride. 
 
"The Case Against Brooklyn had been scripted by blacklisted Hollywood writer Bernard Gordon, under the pseudonym “Raymond T. Marcus.” Subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee but never called to testify, Gordon had been named as a Communist sympathizer by writer-producer William Alland and was subsequently blacklisted."  From Turner Classic Movies website

All that being said, and with perhaps yet more to say, I mostly have to agree with Dalton Trumbo, although I do think there were some exceptions among the "friendly" witnesses, people who named names solely in order to get ahead in Hollywood, not because they thought those they named were anything remotely resembling "Un-American."  It was a very bad time for everyone, and I'm not certain that, had I lived then and been involved, I would have behaved all that bravely myself. 
 

Last Edited By: Bill Warren Aug 9 10 6:57 PM. Edited 2 times.