The Untouchables TV series (1959-63) was the first of its kind - a police procedural with explicit violence and action.  Up until then most detective stories focused on the investigation, but The Untouchables featured the gunfights and car chases that became staples of the genre by the 1970s.  It was ...
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A recently released document from the JFK files has confirmed an old rumour: that the CIA helped arrange the affair between actress Susan Cabot and King Hussein of Jordan.  The memo records how the man directly involved was the CIA's on-the-ground fixer in Hollywood, Robert Maheu. The Affair Cabot was ...
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Of all the US intelligence agencies, the FBI has the longest-running relationship with Hollywood. From spying on A-listers as to helping blacklist screenwriters, through to manipulating scripts for PR and propaganda purposes, the Bureau’s influence on Tinseltown is very broad. Using documents from throughout the FBI’s history, today we’re going ...
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Newly released documents shed light on the FBI's entertainment liaison office - officially titled the Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit (IPPAU), including how they work on dozens of popular films and TV shows, and reject requests for support for PR reasons, just like the Pentagon. The documents were released ...
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I am proud to announce that Critical Sociology have today published an article I co-wrote with Matt Alford that sums up the major findings from our research for National Security Cinema.  Titled 'New Evidence for the Surprisingly Significant Propaganda Role of the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense in ...
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The long-running ABC show The F.B.I. was perhaps the greatest success of the FBI's entertainment liaison office during Hoover's time as head of the Bureau.  The deal struck between the FBI and the producers granted Hoover approval and veto power over scripts, casting and even sponsors.  In return Hoover allowed ...
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The first movie to film at CIA Headquarters at Langley was Scorpio in the early 1970s. The last major film was Argo in 2012. Sometime in 2014 the CIA stopped letting film-makers shoot footage on the CIA campus. This week I examine this decision by analysing the last two films ...
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Like most major 20th century writers the FBI has a brief file on Aldous Huxley - the 'author and social critic' behind Brave New World, Island and The Doors of Perception.  Huxley was never the subject of a Bureau investigation but they kept tabs on some of his public appearances ...
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