https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/ec54a9db-17fc-47ae-8fc3-6c8cd7081732 Cradle Will Rock (1999), English with hard coded English subtitles, Director/Writer: Tim Robbins, Featuring: Hank Azaria, Rubén Blades, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Susan Sarandon, Bill Murray, Carey Elwes, Vanessa Redgrave, John Turturro, Philip Baker Hall, Angus MacFadyen, Jack Black, Paul Giamatti, Emily Watson Synopsis: A true story of politics and art in the 1930s U.S., focusing on a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production. Content Warnings: Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Rated R for some language and sexuality Sex & Nudity: Moderate Violence & Gore: Mild Profanity: Moderate Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: Moderate Frightening & Intense Scenes: None listed but not rated : https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/243024 from IMDB: This film is based on actual events, though it takes liberties with the details. Marc Blitzstein's 1937 anti-capitalist operetta 'The Cradle Will Rock', about the effort to unionize steelworkers, was originally produced as part of the Federal Theatre Project. The Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939), in turn, was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was created in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to employ people during the Great Depression. Directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman, Cradle was shut down right before it was due to open because of "budget cuts" at the FTP. Everyone involved believed the government deliberately cut funding because the play's message offended its more conservative contingent; Actor's Equity prohibited its members from taking part, apparently oblivious to the fact that Cradle was a pro-union piece and Actor's Equity was - and is - a union. Welles, Housman and Blitzstein spontaneously rented another theater and planned to put on Cradle with Blitzstein himself singing/reading the piece; the show sold out and various actors defied Equity and performed their parts from the seats they'd bought. The secondary plot which involved Mexican painter Diego Rivera butting heads with Nelson Rockefeller when the mural the latter commissioned for a Rockefeller Center lobby on the high-minded subject of "human intelligence in control of the forces of nature" included a portrait of Lenin, is also based on fact, though it happened in 1933. The incident is also dramatized in the 2002 film Frida (2002). Tim Robbins included it because it tied into the theme of artistic integrity vs. economic practicality. The scene in which an HUAC investigator inadvertently reveals his ignorance of Christopher Marlowe is based on fact. However, the film rather churlishly denies Orson Welles any involvement in this catastrophic mistake, which made the Un-American Activities committee look very foolish. In fact, the gaffe came about because of a deliberate Wellesian prank. Welles knew quite well that the committee was illegally tapping his telephone and deliberately arranged a series of carefully-scripted telephone conversations to give the impression that Marlowe, who died in 1593, was a modern-day communist agitator. He felt sure that no-one at the HUAC would know any better - and they didn't. Regarding the original material, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cradle_Will_Rock : The Cradle Will Rock had its genesis in composer Marc Blitzstein's Sketch No. 1, a short work that garnered positive comment in the Daily Worker after it was performed at The New School in February 1936.  "It had to do with a Moll, a Gent, a Dick; the plot concerned a little proposition and a little chicanery", Blitzstein later recalled. Bertolt Brecht had heard the sketch at Blitzstein's apartment in late 1935, and suggested that he expand its theme from literal to figurative prostitution. Blitzstein remembered him as saying, "There is prostitution for gain in so many walks of life: the artist, the preacher, the doctor, the lawyer, the newspaper editor. Why don't you put them against this scene of literal selling." Blitzstein took up the idea and ultimately dedicated The Cradle Will Rock to Brecht. "I wrote both the words and the music of The Cradle Will Rock at white heat during five weeks in 1936," Blitzstein said, "as a kind of rebound from my wife's death in May." The drafted short score was completed September 2, 1936 See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Blitzstein Music: Let's Do Something, Written by Marc Blitzstein Performed by Erin Hill and Daniel Jenkins (as Dan Jenkins) The Cradle Will Rock, Written by Marc Blitzstein Performed by Henry Stram, Timothy Jerome (as Tim Jerome), Victoria Clark (as Vicki Clark), Erin Hill, Daniel Jenkins (as Dan Jenkins) and Chris McKinney Honolulu, Written by Marc Blitzstein Performed by Timothy Jerome (as Tim Jerome), Victoria Clark (as Vicki Clark), Erin Hill, Daniel Jenkins (as Dan Jenkins) Moll's Song, Written by Marc Blitzstein Performed by Emily Watson Oh What a Filthy Night Court, Written by Marc Blitzstein Performed by Henry Stram, Erin Hill, Daniel Jenkins (as Dan Jenkins), Timothy Jerome (as Tim Jerome), Victoria Clark (as Vicki Clark) and Chris McKinney Croon Spoon, Written by Marc Blitzstein Performed by Eddie Vedder and Susan Sarandon Art for Art's Sake, Written by Marc Blitzstein Performed by Henry Stram, Erin Hill, Daniel Jenkins (as Dan Jenkins), Timothy Jerome (as Tim Jerome), Victoria Clark (as Vicki Clark) and Chris McKinney The Clouds Will Soon Roll By, Written by Harry M. Woods (as Harry Woods) and Billy Hill Performed by Elsie Carlisle (as Charles Carlisle) Don Giovanni, Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Romance, Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Gotta Go To Work, Written by Milton Pascal, Edgar Fairchild Performed by The California Ramblers What A Little Moonlight Can Do, Written by Harry M. Woods Performed by Billie Holiday Giovinezza, Written by S. Gotta, G. Blanc Cobbler In Despair, Written by Tim Robbins, David Robbins L'Internationale, Written by Pierre Degeyter, Eugène Pottier Nickel under the foot, Written by Marc Blitzstein Performed by PJ Harvey (as Polly Jean Harvey) with Bob Ellis Thu, 09 Apr 2026 08:17:03 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/ec54a9db-17fc-47ae-8fc3-6c8cd7081732 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.