Black Sunset is, I can attest this time around, an autobiography: a funny, cynical, score-settling romp through blacklist-era Hollywood, where Sigal had managed to charm his way into a junior-agent job with the legendary Sam Jaffe, whose clients included Humphrey Bogart. What a life: Girls dropped their girdles left and right; Peter Lorre was a drinking buddy. Except Sigal was also being trailed everywhere he went by two FBI agents in fedoras (he nicknames them Mutt and Jeff), threatened about his pinko connections, and eventually subpoenaed to testify before HUAC.

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