Back on the payroll in LA, Gruenberg was brought in to score the taut, well-received one-room drama of a Russian soldier holding a group of German soldiers, Counter-Attack (1945), written by soon-to-be-blacklisted John Howard Lawson.
All The King's Men (1949), the Pulitzer-Prize-winning fictional story of Huey Long, was a tremendous success, winning three top Oscars among many other prizes.