Postwar Paranoia Thrillers: The Enemy Has No Face (with Tony Shaw)

How does cinema dramatize a dread with no face? This month, Tony Shaw, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Hertfordshire and author of “Hollywood’s Cold War,” joins Andy Nelson to trace the postwar paranoia thriller across ten films—from “The Third Man” and “The Manchurian Candidate” to “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.”
Working through four thematic clusters—occupied European cities, the anxious American home, brainwashing nightmares, and nuclear dread—Andy and Tony examine what was actually happening behind these films. Tony’s archival research documents the CIA’s secret role in shaping “Animal Farm’s” ending and the Eisenhower administration’s campaign to discredit “On the Beach.” Cold War cinema examined from the inside out—on Cinema Scope and TruStory FM.
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