Guilty by Suspicion

Guilty by Suspicion is a 1991 American drama film that was written & directed by Irwin Winkler, starring Robert De Niro, Annette Bening and George Wendt.

The film's theme is about the Hollywood blacklist and associated activities stemming from McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Plot
Set in Hollywood in the 1950s, director David Merrill (Robert De Niro) returns from abroad and learns about the rise of McCarthyism and the Red Scare which has disallowed him to work on his films & the only way he'll be able to direct films again is if he implicates his colleagues as Communist agents.

Merrill is forced to decide whether or not to become a informant or stick to his principles.

Cast

 * Robert De Niro as David Merrill
 * Annette Bening as Ruth Merrill
 * George Wendt as Bunny Baxter
 * Patricia Wettig as Dorothy Nolan
 * Sam Wanamaker as Felix Graff
 * Luke Edwards as Paulie Merrill
 * Chris Cooper as Larry Nolan
 * Barry Tubb as Jerry Cooper
 * Ben Piazza as Darryl Zanuck
 * Martin Scorsese as Joe Lesser
 * Barry Primus as Bert Alan
 * Gailard Sartain as Chairman Wood
 * Robin Gammell as Congressman Tavenner
 * Brad Sullivan as Congressman Velde
 * Tom Sizemore as Ray Karlin
 * Stuart Margolin as Abe Barron
 * Roxann Biggs as Felicia Barron
 * Gene Kirkwood as Gene Woods
 * Stephen Root as RKO Guard

Production
The movie was filmed from March 30, 1990 to June 8, 1990 in Los Angeles, Malibu, Beverly Hills and Pasadena, California.

In the movie, it had nine instances of the "f-word" (also known as "f***) or its derivatives in its dialogue and as such it is often presented as an exception to the "conventional wisdom" that claims that any movie that uses the "f-word" more than once or twice automatically gets an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (also known as the MPAA).

Controversy
Before "Guilty By Suspicion" was released, a fight broke out over the film's script clean up which happened between director Irwin Winkler and former blacklisted writer Abraham Polonsky.

Through other people, Polonsky learned that Winkler changed the political convictions of the De Niro character. He was resentful of the change over.

In the rewrite, the David Merrill character was changed from a Communist Party member to a relatively apolitical liberal. Winkler based his conception of Merrill on blacklisted director John Berry, who would come back to Hollywood film even though it took time to get off the blacklist.

Polonsky was so offended that director Winkler changed the main character that he not only had his name taken off of the picture, he also refused to have an executive producer credit that would have earned him a substantial fee.