 Despite his patriotic war oeuvre—or perhaps because of it—Pichel soon came under scrutiny by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, cofounded and steered by Mississippi Congressman John E. Rankin who routinely and specifically attacked Jews in the Congressional Record and had bitterly resisted America entering World War II.Like many of those who came under HUAC investigation by the late 1940s, Pichel moved into film noir, in "They Won't Believe Me" (1947).Here, Pichel had the benefit of longtime Hitchcock collaborator and screenwriter, Joan Harrison, as his producer, who would go on to produce the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.