rHow Does US Popular Culture Present the Communist Threat?

United States pop culture instigated identification with the anti-Communist cause through presenting Communism as an affront to the American dream, the Catholic church, and the patriarchal order. This conservative bent exemplifies how the dominant values represent a return to the conservative values of the past. By advocating conservative values, pop culture retreated from the more anarchistic dominant genres of the 1940s, the film noir and the family melodrama: two genres that explored the breakdown of the patriarchal order. In lieu of the noir and melodrama, pop culture, especially television, “offered a bland menu of quiz shows and westerns during the late 1950s, [in which] McCarthy-era anxieties clearly played a role” (84). Not only was the Communist threat presented as a threat to the American dream, but the way in which it was presented represents the antithesis of the stability of the American dream: Communists are framed as dangerous because they are passable as ordinary people and moreover, because they control the systems of technology: science, mass transportation, and mass media. Thus, in order to overthrow the Communist threat, films such as Red Planet Mars (1952) and television shows such as “I Led 3 Lives” filter the American anti-Communist effort through the defeat of Communist-controlled technology and the restoration of the conservative American Dream. Both Red Planet Mars and “I Led 3 Lives” portray the Communist threat as threatening the status quo of the American dream, stable domesticity, and the patriarchal order. Indeed, the opening of “I Led 3 Lives” exemplifies the Communist threat to Americana. Herbert states that “while the Johnson’s are grilling steaks, you’ve got something else to put on the griddle: a report for [a] special agent.” The manner in which the Communist threat disrupts American domesticity is compounded later, upon Philbrook’s statement that “Margaret is the best short-term babysitter money can buy, but until tonight you’d have never guessed they were Communists.” Since the babysitter represents a suburban figure of protection, the verbal segregation between the babysitter and the fact that she is a Communist (but until tonight you’d have never guessed) signifies the association between Communism and the fall of patriarchal domesticity. Red Planet Mars applies the Communist threat to domesticity and filters it through Catholicism, thereby emphasizing the American association with patriarchy threatened by Communism. Specifically, the German-Russian Franz Calder is immediately coded as antireligious and immoral. Additionally, Calder represents the antithesis of stable domesticity and the American Dream. The lack of stable home is evidenced through the fact that an avalanche destroys his laboratory. Moreover, in contrast with Chris, who fulfills the standard of American masculinity (wife and kids, tall and broad shouldered, hard liquor after work) Calder not only does not possess a family but continuously drinks what appears to be champagne (not hard liquor), thereby implying homosexuality. After showing his laboratory, the camera portrays a crucifix, to which the Russians state “Thank you comrade,” thereby exemplifying distorted patriarchy. Immediately thereafter, the camera cuts to a Christ painting in Chris’s son’s room, thereby signifying the stable patriarchy and piety of the American family. Further, the Christ painting is the opposite and equal manifestation of an occult mask in Calder’s laboratory, underscoring the dichotomy. The Communist deviation from religious values is literalized by Chris’s statement with regard to Calder that “You’ve got to give the devil his due. Thus, the film

ensures American viewer identification with the anti-Communist cause by aligning American domesticity with religious belief and portraying the Communists as anti-religious and diabolical. In lieu of belief in religion, the Communists adhere to technology and the systems of mass communication. Specifically, Calder and the Russian authorities intercept the missives between Chris and Mars.. Similarly, in “I Led 3 Lives,” the Communists utilize the mail carrier system. In Red Planet Mars, they also listen in on the “Voice of America” broadcasts, spying in order to maintain surveillance over the Americans. As such, both the television show and the film issue a dichotomy between science and technology versus religion as contrasting universal ‘languages’, with technology resulting in terror and religion producing the stable patriarchy associated with the American dream and domestic prosperity. Both Red Planet Mars and “I Led 3 Lives” situate the defeat of Communism through the defeat of Communist technology or success with technology systems. Specifically, “I Led 3 Lives” portrays the American military intercepting the package that the Communist Mrs. Wharton sent to her son, a soldier in the American army. By intercepting the package, the Americans defeat the Communists’ ability to navigate the systems of technology and mass travel. Thus, the closing voiceover by Herbert Philbrick literalizes the Communist technological breakdown: “They won’t be able to use…espionage any more. Party security in this area isn’t all that it should be,” thereby literalizing the restoration of suburban America, as Philbrick returns to his family instead of the Communists. Red Planet Mars is even more explicit than “I Led 3 Lives” in its portrayal of religion and domesticity conquering (Communist-anchored) technology. The film situates the final showdown between the Cronyn’s and Franz Calder as a battle between religion and the devil, with the fate of patriarchy and Catholicism at stake. Calder states that “You are not dealing with a superstitious peasant…better to reign in Hell than serve in heaven,” adding that “That’s my God…I’ll have beaten God.” By contrast, the Americans fulfill the image of religious piety and patriarchy, with prior scenes showing religion as a universal unifier, with the president stating that “Now we’re riding the star of Bethlehem” and an editorial cut from a crucifix to the White House, with the president’s speech functioning as a thinly veiled scene of a preacher delivering a sermon. Given the dichotomy between religion and technology, by shooting the laboratory (creating an explosion that both destroys science and Mr. and Mrs. Cronyn, Mr. and Mrs. Cronyn’s death is framed as a religious sacrifice, with their death followed by an announcement that “The bells of a million churches ring out in salutation for the new day of earth.” Immediately thereafter, the end credit states “The beginning,” emphasizing how the defeat of technology coincides with the universal victory of religion. Moreover, the end title—reverting back to ‘The Beginning’ signifies return to a holy past founded on the values of stable domesticity, favoring family over technology and (not coincidentally) espousing the ethos of the American Dream. Not only do Red Planet and “I Lived 3 Lives” portray the anti-Communist effort as defeating Communism through religiosity and stable domesticity, but both texts disavow more politically radical genres associated with 1940s and early 1950s popular culture and film, in the process. Specifically, both evoke the conflicted male psyche and/or the conflicted American family, constructs of the film noir and the family melodrama. “I Led 3 Lives” immediately evokes film noir through the aforementioned voiceover describing Philbrook’s conflicted duties between his ‘3 lives’: as father, as FBI agent, and as Communist. Additionally, the film evokes noir through the paranoia associated with the public sphere, as Philbrook is paranoid of being

identified as a Communist, stating that a Communist “can’t stand on the street.” Both the conflicted male psyche and the hazardous public sphere manifest prominently in highly recognizable (to the public) noirs such as Double Indemnity (1944) and The Third Man (1949). By aligning the Communist threat with noir, the television episode situates the extermination of Communism at the end with rejection of noir. In addition to “I Led 3 Lives’” implicit disavowal of the noir genre, Red Planet Mars evokes and subsequently rejects the family melodrama, a genre prevalent in Hollywood throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The melodrama portrays a rebellion against bourgeois mores and stable domesticity, an anarchic dynamic prevalent in such films as Mildred Pierce, Gaslight, The Reckless Moment, or even a musical such as Meet Me in St. Louis. The melodrama reveals the collapse of the American dream and patriarchy, with troubled parental relationships resulting in a dynamic whereby, as Andrew Britton states, “the notion of classical decorum…is progressively undermined” (Britton, 456). Red Planet Mars evokes the melodrama through the marital feud between Chris and Linda, with Chris advocating science over religion, and Linda advocating for the validity of the Sermon on the Mount. The feud, propagated around the existence of God, threatens the patriarchal order (the stereotypical American family and Catholic values.) However, the film’s preference of religion, with the face of America, (and, by extension, patriarchy) the president, stating that “Now we’re riding the star of Bethlehem,” functions as a restoration of traditional “decorum” and by extension, disavowal of the radical melodrama genre. In lieu of the subversive genres of noir and melodrama evoked by Red Planet Mars and “I Led 3 Lives,” both films instead portray the victory of traditional American values: stable family, belief in God. Moreover, the repudiation of radical content alludes to the financial conservativeness of the industry, exemplified by the testimony that “A sponsor is in business to sell his goods. He has no interest in being involved in causes. He does not want controversy…why buy yourself a headache” (Faulk v. AWARE, 226). The statement, explaining the industries’ rejection of radical material, identifies how the communist threat was framed pejoratively because entertainment effectively possessed an exchange value whereby subversive material was ‘bad business.’ If, as argued, “creative work at its best cannot be carried on in an atmosphere of fear,” the prevalent fear of radical identifies how the villainous portrayal of the communist threat (portrayed in Red Planet Mars, “I Led 3 Lives,” and aligned with rejection of more radical prevailing 1940s genres) paved the way for the “bland menu” of entertainment characteristic of 1950s popular culture.