The film comes to life toward the end, in the performance of Blitzstein's work. The Cradle Will Rock is a forgotten gem, rarely done anywhere. I hope that this film generates interest in Marc Blitzstein, the neglected talent who was later responsible for the immensely popular American adaptation of Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera in the 1950s. Cradle Will Rock ends with a small coffin bearing the ventriloquist's dummy, representing the Federal Theater Project, being carried onto Broadway. But it is the present-day Times Square, overbearingly garish and festooned with the animated signs of huge electronics corporations and media giants.
Real art is dead.
It was killed by the right-wing congressmen, rich industrialists and tawdry commerce. To Robbins, this period spawned a pure art, a people's art untouched by the ruling class. At other times, he is inspired to write by being caught in a police raid on left-wing speakers in Union Square. Clearly, he is untouched by the corrupt hand of capitalism. As to the depiction of Orson Welles, he is, I presume, meant to be an example of corrupt capitalism getting in the way of art.