[1] His early career involved acting as part of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre.
[1] Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times called it "a taut, searing drama" and "an evening of nerve-racking tension in the theatre".
[2] A Pacific coast production was produced by Lillian Albertson at the Majestic Theatre in Los Angeles,[3] and it was adapted for the screen in 1932 and 1959.
[1] First performed at the Royale Theatre in March 1934,[4]: 83 Brooks Atkinson described it as "a play of terrifying and courageous bluntness of statement".
[5] In 1937, his play Steel was performed at the Labor Stage by members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
[6][7] In 1945, Wexley wrote Tears Without Laughter, which focuses on Nazi plots to establish cartels in the United States.
[15] Wexley was named as a communist sympathiser multiple times throughout the 1950s in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
[18] Some of his works had previously been accused of being pro-communist: the theatre reviewer of the NAACP's magazine The Crisis referred to his play They Shall Not Die as "propaganda for the Communist party transferred to the stage".