
Part of Series
From Here to Eternity (1953) is one of the most controversial films of its time. Adapted from James Jones' bestselling novel, the landmark blockbuster deals frankly with adultery, military corruption, physical abuse, racism and murder, and traces the unhappy lives of five American outsiders in the last days before Pearl Harbor. Made at the height of the Cold War and Hollywood's anticommunist purges, director Fred Zinnemann, writer Daniel Taradash and producer Buddy Adler defied military and industry pressure to censor the material. Exploring the film's full production history and drawing upon archival documents and rare interviews with cast and crew, J. E. Smyth provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the film many industry insiders thought couldn't be made. This special edition features original cover artwork by Eda Akaltun.
Author
J. E. Smyth is a film critic and historian. She was born in New England and was educated at Wellesley College and Yale University. Smyth has written and edited several books about Hollywood, including a new edition of Jane Allen’s novel, I Lost My Girlish Laughter (Random House, 2019) and Nobody’s Girl Friday (Oxford University Press, 2018), a history of the many high-powered women who worked in the golden age of the Hollywood studio system (1924-1954). In 2021, she was named an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences film scholar for her latest project, a biography of Screen Writers Guild president, labor leader, and feminist, Mary C. McCall Jr.