Ben Barzman was an Anglo-Canadian best known as a screenwriter who was
blacklisted during the post-World War II "Red scare" in Hollywood. Born
on October 12, 1910, in Toronto, he moved to the United States, where
he established himself as a screenwriter during the war. He is probably
best known for
Der Junge mit den grünen Haaren (1948),
his adaptation of Betzi Beaton's novel that
was an allegory against intolerance that bears witness to post-war
American attitude that demanded conformity. The movie was directed by
Joseph Losey, who also would be blacklisted
and with whom Barzman would work in the future.
In Hollywood Ben and his wife
Norma Barzman became members of the
Communist Party and remained so in exile. After Barzman traveled to
England in 1949 to work on a movie, he decided to stay in Europe, and
he and Norma moved to Paris, where they had the freedom to associate
with Communists, left-wingers and anyone else they wanted to. However,
Ben grew to dislike the milieu, and moved the family to the south of
France in the 1950s. They broke with the Party after the student riots
of 1968 due to the French Communist Party's failure to support a
general strike called by labor unions in solidarity with the students.
Norma Barzman claims that Ben rewrote the screenplay of the
Oscar-winning Z: Anatomie eines politischen Mordes (1969) for director
Costa-Gavras, but did not receive credit.
He also helped arrange for the filming of the movie in Algeria. In
addition to his screen work, Barzman wrote the science-fiction novel
"Out of This World" in 1960.
He died on December 15, 1989, in Santa Monica, California, at the age
of 79.
