Reign of Terror (film) United Californian. Producer Walter Wagner, director Anthony Mann, cinematographer John Alton and production designer William Cameron Menzies used their combined talents to make a low budget "epic" using Broadway stars and shooting on sets only costing $40,000. Reign of Terror (film) Reign of Terror (also known as The Black Book) is a 1949 American drama film directed by Anthony Mann and starring Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart and Arlene Dahl. The film is set during the French Revolution. Plotters seek to bring down Maximilien Robespierre and end his bloodthirsty Reign of Terror. Already the most powerful man in France, Maximilien Robespierre
Reign of Terror in the French people. As a result, he decided to weed out those he believed could never possess this virtue. The result was a continual push towards Terror. The Convention used this as justification for the course of action to “crush the enemies of the revolution, ... let the laws be executed, … and let liberty be saved.” These members of the Enlightenment movement greatly influenced revolutionary leaders; however, cautions from other Enlightenment thinkers were blatantly ignored. Voltaire’s warnings were often overlooked, though some of his ideas were used for justification of the Revolution and the start of the Terror.