Cold War Cinema

Cold War Cinema is a podcast about the shifting cultural, political, and aesthetic currents running through movies made during the Cold War.

BONUS: The Phoenician Scheme (w/ guest Matthew Ellis) 07/29/2025

BONUS: The Phoenician Scheme (w/ guest Matthew Ellis) “Normal people want the basic human rights that accompany citizenship in any sovereign nation. I don't… I don't live anywhere; I'm not a citizen at all. I don't need my human rights.” The Cold War Cinema team is back with special guest Matthew Ellis, a researcher, artist, and cohost of the , for a special bonus episode covering Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme. Recently released on home video and streaming, the film follows the cunning, reprobate industrialist Zsa-zsa Korda (Bencio Del Toro) as he swindles his way into a massive infrastructure deal in the country of Upper Independent Phoenicia. Join Matthew Ellis and hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as they discuss: The Phoenician Scheme’s connections to the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA-backed cultural operation from 1950 that weaponized writers, artists, and other thinkers for intelligence operations. How Anderson’s film reveals the Cold War origins of the contemporary world in its critiques of capitalism and the neoliberal project. The ways that The Phoenician Scheme breaks Anderson’s hermetically sealed aesthetics and alludes to its formal limitations. _____________________ Each episode features book and film recommendations for further exploration. On this episode: Matthew recommends Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later. Paul recommends Matt Zoller Seitz’s The Wes Anderson Collection and Louis Althusser’s “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Towards an Investigation.” Tony recommends Carpenter’s Gothic by William Gaddis. Jason recommends The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World by Vijay Prashad. _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don’t forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at [email protected]. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at , or find us online on Bluesky or on X at . For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at , on X at , or on Letterboxed at . Follow Anthony on Bluesky at , on X at . Follow Paul on Bluesky at , or on Letterboxed at . Paul also writes about movies at _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian Theme music by (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt). Happy listening! /episode/index/show/f60c2930-18ea-47d8-a71c-91c645d0f028/id/37586490

S2 Ep. 4: I Married a Communist A.K.A. The Woman on Pier 13 (Robert Stevenson, 1949) 07/24/2025

S2 Ep. 4: I Married a Communist A.K.A. The Woman on Pier 13 (Robert Stevenson, 1949) This week on Cold War Cinema, we discuss Robert Stevenson’s 1949 drama, I Married a Communist, also known as Woman on Pier 13. This Hollywood production is one of the most storied—and notorious—anti-communist films of the early Cold War era. The movie revolves around a San Francisco shipping exective who worked his way up from the docks, as a stevedore, only to find himself embroiled in a Communist plot to sabotage a labor contract. Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as we consider: How Hollywood colluded with the government to portray Communists as nihistic, intellectual, unfeeling and yet effinate organized criminals. The condescention at the heart of anti-Communist propaganda in the US that implies that ordinary Americans are too "dumb" to recognize when they are being duped. The paradoxical role of unions in New Deal liberal ideology as a potential bulwark against Communists. The perrenial recycled anti-Communist tropes in American political rhetoric to this day. _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode: Paul recommends Foster Hirsh’s 2023 book Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher—Television. Tony recommends Gerald Horne's 2011 book, Fighting in Paradise: Labor Unions, Racism, and Communists in the Making of Modern Hawai'i. Jason recommends Rebecca Prime's 2013 book, Hollywood Exiles in Europe: The Blacklist and Cold War Film Culture. _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don’t forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at [email protected]. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at , or find us online on Bluesky or on X at . /episode/index/show/f60c2930-18ea-47d8-a71c-91c645d0f028/id/37528720

S2 Ep. 3: The Russian Question (Mikhail Romm, 1948) 07/03/2025

S2 Ep. 3: The Russian Question (Mikhail Romm, 1948) “I used to think there was one America, but there are two. There's no place for me in McPherson's and Hearst's America, but there is in Lincoln's and Roosevelts!” This week on Cold War Cinema, we discuss Mikhaill Romm’s 1948 drama, The Russian Question. In this Soviet production, winner of the 1948 Stalin Prize and based on a play of the same name by Konstantin Siminov, a mendacious newspaper editor sends columnist Harry Smith to the Soviet Union to write a book critical of socialism. But when the principled columnist returns to the United States, he quickly realizes that the American press intends to turn the Russian question—whether the Russians want war—into a statement with dangerous geopolitical ramifications. Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as we consider: The role of editing or montage in the construction of political critiques in aesthetic form Why the President of the Motion Picture Association called this a “sneering, lying attack on the United States” and an “open bid to stir contempt and hatred for America on the part of the Russian audiences,” and why he got it all wrong How a Soviet film about a sensationalist American news media helps us understand our current political moment _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode: Paul recommends Clarence Brown’s 1949 drama Intruder in the Dust. Tony recommends Langston Hughes 1961 collection, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. Jason recommends Mikhail Romm’s 1961 drama Nine Days in One Year. _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don’t forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at [email protected]. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at , or find us online on Bluesky or on X at . /episode/index/show/f60c2930-18ea-47d8-a71c-91c645d0f028/id/37266790