John Berry (film Director) - Blacklisted

Blacklisted

In 1950, Berry agreed to direct a short documentary on the Hollywood 10, a group of directors and writers who refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their pursuit of supposed Communist Party infiltration within the U.S. film industry. After directing the crime drama "He Ran All the Way", Berry was named as a communist by fellow director Edward Dmytryk, a Hollywood Ten member who had been jailed for contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with HUAC. After being released from prison, Dmytryk had gone into exile in England, but subsequently, he sought to reenter the Hollywood film industry. Thus, ex-Party member Dymytrk voluntarily testified before HUAC in April 1951, clearing himself by "naming names."

Berry was one of the 26 alleged "communists" named by Dmytryk (who went on to become a mainstream Hollywood director after the rehabilitation triggered by his Congressional mea culpa). Berry was also named as a communist by ex-Communist Party member Frank Tuttle. (Tuttle also testified before HUAC in 1951, after returning from Vienna, Austria to clear his name and regain employment in Hollywood by "naming names". ) Unable to secure work, Berry left the U.S. and resettled with his family in Paris. "He Ran All the Way" would be the last American film Berry directed for nearly a quarter of a century.

In France, Berry was hired to co-direct Atoll K, a comedy film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. However, the blacklisted Berry did not receive screen credit; only French director Léo Joannon was credited as director.

During the 1950s, Berry directed two films starring Eddie Constantine, Ça va barder (1953) and Je suis un sentimental (1955), and he also directed Tamango (1958), a film about a slave uprising that starred Dorothy Dandridge.