Ep. 114: Salt of the Earth (1954) Part II- The Production or ‘Strike 3’

Zach welcomes back filmmaker and podcast pal Marshall Rosales to the program for an epic Two- Part discussion surrounding the motion picture and the production story of Herbert J. Biberman’s 1954 epic that would be suppressed amid the Hollywood Blacklist, SALT OF THE EARTH.

In Part 2, Zach and Marshall dedicate the entire show to breaking down the fraught and embattled history surrounding the making of the film. Listen in as the duo lays out the trajectory from script to screen to legacy, become befuddled by the efforts of the Blacklist to suppress the film during production up to release, examine the efforts of Biberman getting the non-professional actors to step up the challenge of screen performance, find themselves impressed by the ways the creative team managed to get the film wrapped in post despite attempts to block, and then settle upon the importance of the films production, the story itself, and everything in between draws a line to the present day.

PLUS: We meet the craziest historical figure in cinema history.

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Books Used:

‘Salt of the Earth: The Story of a Film’ by Herbert J. Biberman

‘The Suppression of Salt of the Earth: How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in the American Cold War’ by James J. Lorence