Riesel was intimately involved in the Hollywood blacklist of the late 1940s and 1950s. He strongly criticized Samuel Fuller's 1951 Korean War film "The Steel Helmet" for promoting communism and portraying American soldiers as murderers. He also attacked the 1954 pro-union film "Salt of the Earth" as communistic, and implied that the production's on-location proximity to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Nevada Test Site was a cover for Soviet spying on the American nuclear weapons program. Riesel saw it as his patriotic duty to publicize allegations of communist influence made against actors, directors, producers, and others (especially those claims made by conservative actors Adolphe Menjou and Ward Bond). As the blacklist lifted, Riesel agreed to allow his column to become a means for blacklisted individuals to admit their offenses, denounce communism, and become active in the motion picture industry again. Along with Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell, he would meet privately with these individuals, assess the sincerity of their penance, and then work with them to help rehabilitate their careers if he believed they were being honest with him.