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The novel was by Howard Fast; the screenplay for the 1960 film, however, was by Dalton Trumbo, of the notorious Hollywood Ten. That is who Tacis was referring to. Trumbo also wrote the screenplay to Lonely are the Brave (1962), one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful westerns, nay movies, ever made. Spartacus and Lonely were both produced by, and starred, Kirk Douglas. Paths of Glory (1957) was also written by Trumbo, and produced by and starred Douglas.

Paths was directed by a young Stanley Kubrick. Spartacus was initially directed by Anthony Mann, but he and Douglas had a falling out, and Douglas replaced him with Kubrick. Kubrick later disowned the film, which his devotees saw as indubitable proof that the movie stunk. However, if you compare the work Kubrick did for Douglas to the work he did as an independent producer-director, you see the Douglas films suffused with a humanity that Kubrick's "classic" independent films were bereft of. It wasn't Kubrick who saved Douglas, but the other way around.

Although I have been an anti-communist since I was a child, and I fully understand the political subtext of Spartacus as an attack on the then recently-deceased Tailgunner Joe, I cannot hate Douglas, or even Trumbo, two men who have brought so much joy and beauty to my life.