My Son John

My Son John
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLeo McCarey
Written byMyles Connolly
Leo McCarey
John Lee Mahin
Produced byLeo McCarey
StarringHelen Hayes
Van Heflin
Robert Walker
Dean Jagger
CinematographyHarry Stradling
Edited byMarvin Coil
Music byRobert Emmett Dolan
Production
company
Rainbow Productions
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • April 8, 1952 (1952-04-08)
Running time
122 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

My Son John is a 1952 American political drama film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Robert Walker and Dean Jagger. Walker plays the title character, a middle-class college graduate whom his parents suspect may be a communist spy.

The strongly anticommunist film, produced during the height of McCarthyism,[1] received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. The nomination was later viewed as a possible attempt by the motion picture industry to signal its loyalty to the ongoing anticommunist campaign.[2] Retrospective reviews have characterized it as a propaganda film indicative of attitudes during the Second Red Scare.[3][4]

My Son John was Walker's final role; he died in August 1951, midway through principal photography.

  1. ^ Haas, Elizabeth; Christiansen, Terry; Haas, Peter (2015). Projecting Politics: Political Messages in American Films (2nd ed.). Routledge. pp. 141–2. ISBN 9781317520030. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  2. ^ Whitfield, Stephen J. (1996). The Culture of the Cold War (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 136–7. ISBN 9780801851957. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Vagg, Stephen (November 27, 2018). "Essential Political Films: Stephen Vagg on MY SON JOHN". The Blacklist.

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