Original Warner Brothers Three Sheet Poster (41×81) for the Gordon Douglas cold war politics drama, I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE F.B.I. (1951) starring Frank Lovejoy, Dorothy Hart, Philip Carey, and James Millican. As a relic of Red Scare Era artifacts, the poster is priceless kitsch. The film was based on the real life Pittsburgh steelworker Matt Cvetic, played by Frank Lovejoy. Lovejoy is enlisted by the F.B.I. to infiltrate communist organizations and report back their nefarious activities. Of course this undercover life takes a toll on Lovejoy’s friends and family. The Motion Picture guide offers these comments on the film: “Viewed as a mature social drama I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE F.B.I. is a totally repulsive and reprehensible film that portrays labor unions, intellectuals, schoolteachers and independent-minded people as potentially dangerous Communist dupes who, through their stupidity, could destroy the very fabric of American life. Supposedly based on the memoirs of the real-life Matt Cvetic, who spent years undercover for the F.B.I., joining scores of Communist organizations and providing Washington with nearly a thousand names of potentially threatening subversives, I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE F.B.I. is totally self-serving, panders to thoughtless paranoia, and was produced by Hollywood to placate Joe McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities. In fact, Hollywood was so desperate to convince the public of its sincerity that the film was nominated by the Motion Picture Academy for Best Documentary of 1951.” Of course, the movie is not a documentary at all. The poster is unbacked, printed on two panels and is in fine plus condition with some minor distresses. Three sheet posters may be linen backed as one continuous poster. Ask us about poster conservation.