Red sky lament

the long version

Hollywood in the late 1940s. The U.S. government, attempting to uncover Communist influence in the movies, is ordering people to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. John Ray Horn, a disgraced former B-movie cowboy star, knows all about being an outsider. And when his ex-lover Maggie O'Dare asks for help for her friend, Owen Bruder, who has been targeted by the committee, he can't refuse. Bruder, a screenwriter, is accused of having belonged to the Communist Party. Horn needs to discover Bruder's secret accuser, but no one is willing to talk - in Hollywood, just a whisper can smear an innocent man. As Horn's search leads him to powerful figures in Hollywood and his own government, his investigation takes a sudden and deadly turn.