I Am Spartacus!: Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist

Kirk Douglas recounts the making of his epic film Spartacus in this memoir, published more than fifty years after the film's release. The production took place during Hollywood's blacklist era, when studios refused to hire anyone suspected of Communist sympathies. Douglas made the controversial decision to hire Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted screenwriter and one of the "Unfriendly Ten" who had been imprisoned for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, to write the screenplay. The source novel by Howard Fast had also been written while its author was in jail for defying HUAC. As both producer and star, Douglas navigated a difficult production that included conflicts with director Stanley Kubrick and negotiations with major personalities including Sir Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, and Lew Wasserman. The film became the most expensive of its time. By publicly crediting Trumbo, Douglas helped end Hollywood's blacklist. Written from Douglas's personal archives, the memoir includes newly discovered period photography from the set and behind the scenes.