Fellow Traveller (1989) (TV)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Philip Saville

Writer:

Michael Eaton (writer)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

In Hollywood during the 1950's, screenwriter Asa Kaufman reflects on his Communist associations and...

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | McCarthyism

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ron Silver	...	Asa Kaufman
Hart Bochner	...	Clifford Byrne
Imogen Stubbs	...	Sarah Atchison
Daniel J. Travanti	...	Jerry Leavy
Katherine Borowitz	...	Joan Kaufman
Jonathan Hyde	...	Sheriff of Nottingham (Robin Hood cast)
Alexander Hanson	...	Robin Hood (Robin Hood cast)
John Labanowski	...	Little John (Robin Hood cast)
Peter Corey	...	Friar Tuck (Robin Hood cast)
Briony McRoberts	...	Maid Marion (Robin Hood cast)
Julian Fellowes	...	D'Arcy
Richard Wilson	...	Sir Hugo Armstrong
Doreen Mantle	...	Landlady
David O'Hara	...	Ronnie Wilson
Allan Mitchell	...	Ted Sturton

Runtime:

97 min | Australia:91 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Movie Connections:

References "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1955)

Not a bad look at the Blacklist

Fellow Traveller may have been seen by more people in the UK than in the USA. There are several well-known British actors/actresses in it, and it was released on video over here though I don't think it had a major cinema release. I don't think the Red Scare has been properly covered in the movies or on TV. This together with The Front are probably the best of the various efforts. The dilemmas of whether or not to cooperate are well covered, and the film also rather cleverly brings in to it the early years of British TV and the role played by blacklistees who fled into exile in Britain. The subtler and more hypocritical nature of repression in Britain as compared to the USA is well conveyed. When Asa Kaufman goes to show a script to a British TV producer, the latter knows about his troubles and says how wrong it is to penalise someone for what they think. Then he hints that it might be good if Kaufman, a Jew, were to use an "Anglo-Saxon" pseudonym for his work. Something similar is displayed by two British plainclothes policemen who visit Kaufman and say that "we handle things rather differently over here." Then one of them asks Kaufman as they leave, "Are you still receiving psychiatric treatment?" One thing that irritated me about the film was the Freudian subtext, which I thought was overstated.