Trivia

When the Group Theater (1931-40)--the first American acting company to attempt to put the Russian Konstantin Stanislavski 's principles into action--disbanded, many of the actors who had participated in its revolutionary realistic productions on Broadway ("Awake and Sing" "Waiting for Lefty") made their way to Hollywood in search of work. Two of them-- Roman Bohnen ("Warden") and Art Smith ("Dr. Walters")--can be seen in this film. As several of the actors in The Group had been members of the Communist Party or "leftist" organizations, they would soon be blacklisted during the "Red Scare" era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy 's search for "subversives" in the entertainment industry, one of whom was the director of this film, Jules Dassin . A year before this film was released, Kazan--who had appeared before the McCarthyite House UnAmerican Activities Committee and "named names"--happened to be in Hollywood and saw a production of one of Tennessee Williams ' early plays, "Portrait of a Madonna", directed by Hume Cronyn , who plays the sadistic Capt. Munsey in this film. Kazan was so impressed by the work of Cronyn's wife, Jessica Tandy , that he offered her the role of Blanche Dubois in his Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire." See more