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Abraham Polonsky

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Abraham Polonsky
Born
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky

December 5, 1910
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 26, 1999(1999-10-26) (aged 88)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Occupations
Spouse
Sylvia Marrow
​
(m. 1937)​
Children1

Abraham Lincoln Polonsky (December 5, 1910 – October 26, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, essayist and novelist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Body and Soul (1947). The following year, he wrote and directed Force of Evil (1948), which was later hailed by Martin Scorsese and others as one of the finest achievements of American film noir.[1][2] However, it was to be Polonsky's last credited film for over twenty years. In April 1951, he refused to cooperate or "name names" to the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted by the movie studios.

Early life

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Abraham Polonsky was born in New York City, the eldest son of Russian Jewish immigrants,[3] Henry and Rebecca (née Rosoff). Polonsky would later say, "I'm the son of a pharmacist, il dottore, from a Sicilian neighborhood on the East Side where we lived after the Bronx."[4] He attended DeWitt Clinton High School with classmates that included future film composer Bernard Herrmann.[5][6]

In 1928, he entered City College of New York. While there, he became entranced with the writings of Marcel Proust. Polonsky's initial literary efforts show the influence of the French author.[7] Among Polonsky's close college friends were Paul Goodman and Leonard Boudin. Following graduation, Polonsky earned his law degree in 1935 at Columbia Law School. In 1937, he married his longtime sweetheart, Sylvia Marrow.[8] They had one daughter together.

Career

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A committed Marxist, Polonsky joined the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in 1936.[9] He participated in union politics and established and edited a left-wing newspaper, The Home Front, for the CIO.[10] After a few years of law practice, mixed with teaching at City College, Polonsky decided to devote himself to writing. He wrote essays, radio scripts, and several novels. His first novel, The Goose is Cooked, written with Mitchell A. Wilson under the singular pseudonym of Emmett Hogarth, was published in 1940. His next novel, The Enemy Sea (1943), was serialized in Collier's magazine and was noticed by Paramount Pictures.[11]

Meanwhile, the U.S. had entered World War II, and Polonsky wanted to enlist. However, as "a man over thirty with thick glasses", he had difficulty getting accepted by any military branch.[12] Finally, based on a tip from his brother, he joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (forerunner of the CIA). Shortly before being sent overseas, he signed a five-year contract with Paramount, starting at $250 a week. Because his family needed the money, he asked General "Wild Bill" Donovan of the OSS how he could keep the Paramount job. Donovan said, "[G]reat, it'll make a good cover story. So he gave me a letter instructing Paramount to say I'd been hired to do a documentary on the bombing of England."[13]

Polonsky served in Europe with the OSS from 1943 to 1945, mainly working as a liaison with the French Resistance, and sometimes operating behind enemy lines.[14] He wrote and directed radio programs on clandestine OSS stations. His programs intermixed American jazz, which German soldiers tuned in to, with U.S.-supplied information. Polonsky recalled: "When a German sub went down the Germans never admitted it. But we knew who was on the sub, who went down, his name, address, and all the rest. We broadcast all that to their families as they listened to the jazz. A lot of people listened."[15] Among his other OSS assignments was interviewing Nazi defector Rudolph Hess, and participating in the D-Day landing while posing in his intelligence capacity as an army major.[16]

Polonsky returned to Paramount after the war. His first screenplay credit was for Golden Earrings (1947), directed by Mitchell Leisen. His next project would change the trajectory of his career. He was loaned out to Enterprise Studios to write a boxing story for John Garfield. Polonsky's original screenplay for the Robert Rossen-directed Body and Soul (1947), also starring Lilli Palmer, became an enormous critical and box-office success. Polonsky's screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award. Body and Soul gave him leverage to direct his own film. As he recalled in a 1997 interview, "there's nothing like having a hit."[17]

For his initial directorial effort, Polonsky chose to adapt Ira Wolfert's 1943 novel, Tucker's People. The story centers on a moral conflict between two brothers: one is a crooked lawyer who has become rich in the numbers racket, and the other is a struggling small businessman who wants to maintain his honesty and integrity. Unlike Body and Soul, Force of Evil was not a commercial success when released in the U.S. But it was quickly praised as a masterpiece by film critics in England, and since then its reputation has continued to soar. It is now recognized as a high point of American film noir. Andrew Sarris would later call Force of Evil "one of the great films of modern American cinema."[18] Polonsky's biographers note that when Martin Scorsese personally re-released the movie in 1996, he introduced it on-screen as "the gem of neglected 1940s art cinema and a major influence on his own work."[19] In 1994, Force of Evil was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Hollywood blacklist

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Polonsky's career as a director and a credited screenwriter came to a halt when the Second Red Scare gripped the film industry. In April 1951, he was named as a Communist to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) by Richard J. Collins, Sterling Hayden, and Meta Rosenberg.[20] Later that month, on April 25, 1951, Polonsky was summoned before the Committee. He refused to answer questions, instead invoking the Fifth Amendment's shield against self-incrimination. He also refused to answer whether his wife Sylvia had been a CPUSA member.[21]

Only once during his testimony did Polonsky offer a response. He was asked for the names of the men he worked with in the OSS. He replied, "It's none of your business."[14] Before he could be pressed for an answer to a follow-up question about whether he signed an OSS loyalty oath, a dark-suited man hurried up to the dais and whispered in HUAC Chairman John Wood's ear. Polonsky later said, "He told them to stop right away. The guy in the suit was an intelligence operative, and even he knew I shouldn't answer that question. All those guys I'd been with in the OSS were now in the CIA."[14] At that point in the proceedings, Illinois Congressman Harold Velde recognized that Polonsky possessed a unique set of qualities: suspected Communist, successful Hollywood filmmaker, and former intelligence agent. Velde stated, "in refusing to answer whether or not you signed a loyalty oath when you went into the OSS, you leave me with the impression that you are a very dangerous citizen." The "very dangerous citizen" label instantly became a headline in The Hollywood Reporter and ensured Polonsky would be blacklisted.[22] The phrase was later used as the title of a Polonsky biography.

From 1953–1955, Polonsky wrote 24 episodes (including the premier episode, "The Landing of the Hindenburg", directed by Sidney Lumet) of the popular TV series, You Are There. Hosted by Walter Cronkite, the 30-minute educational show reenacted famous days in history.[23] Polonsky crafted the tag line that Cronkite closed with: "What kind of a day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our time...and YOU WERE THERE!" Polonsky's work was uncredited, as was the work of his frequent writing partners, fellow blacklistees Walter Bernstein and Arnold Manoff. In 1955, William Dozier, executive producer of You Are There, informed the network of the true identities of the three writers and they were immediately fired.[24]

While blacklisted, Polonsky continued to write film scripts under pseudonyms or "fronts", some of which have never been revealed. It is known that he, along with Nelson Gidding, co-wrote the screenplay for Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), based on a novel of the same name by William McGivern. It was initially credited to Oliver Killens, who acted as a front for him. Polonsky was not given public credit for the screenplay until 1997, when the Writers Guild of America West officially restored his name to the film under the WGA screenwriting credit system.

Later years

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As the blacklist eased in the mid-1960s, Polonsky started to get credited work again. He was the creator, script supervisor and writer of the pilot episode of the Canadian television series Seaway. Shot in and around Montreal in 1965, the series was distributed internationally by Lew Grade 's ITC.

In 1968, Polonsky was the screenwriter for Madigan, a neo-noir film where he used his own name in the credits. The film was directed by Don Siegel and starred Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda.

After a 21-year absence, Polonsky returned to film directing in 1969 with the Western, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, a tale of a fugitive Native American pursued by a posse. Polonsky transformed it into an allegory about racism, genocide, and persecution.

Polonsky was an uncredited contributor to the Mommie Dearest (1981) screenplay (based on Christina Crawford's memoirs of her adoptive mother Joan Crawford),[25] and to the screenplay adaptation of A. E. Hotchner's novel The Man Who Lived at the Ritz (1988).[26] Polonsky publicly objected when director Irwin Winkler rewrote his script for Guilty by Suspicion (1991), a film about the Hollywood blacklist era. Winkler converted Polonsky's lead character David Merrill (played by Robert De Niro) from a Communist into a wrongly accused liberal. At that point, Polonsky was so offended by the script changes, he had his name removed from the credits.[27]

In the 1990s, he taught a philosophy class called "Consciousness and Content" at the USC School of Cinema-Television. He also taught a two-year production class in San Francisco State University's Film Department from 1980 to 1982. Although Polonsky had resigned his CPUSA membership in the 1950s after rejecting Stalinism,[28] he remained committed to Marxist political theory, stating in an interview in 1999: "I was a Communist because I thought Marxism offered the best analysis of history, and I still believe that."[13] Polonsky appeared in Thom Andersen's 1996 documentary, Red Hollywood, which focused on films made by the "Hollywood Ten" and other blacklistees.[29]

Until his death, Polonsky was a virulent opponent of director Elia Kazan who had "named names" of his Communist associates to the HUAC. In 1999, Polonsky became enraged when he learned that Kazan would receive an Academy Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement. Polonsky said he hoped Kazan would be shot onstage: "It would no doubt be a thrill in an otherwise dull evening."[30] Polonsky added that his latest project was designing a movable headstone: "That way if they bury that man in the same cemetery, they can move me."[31]

In 1999, Polonsky received the Career Achievement Award of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Prior to the event, he said during an interview: "I have no regrets. Fighting for lost causes is a perfectly proper activity for a human being. It's one reason I've had such a helluva good life."[13]

Abraham Polonsky died on October 26, 1999, in Beverly Hills, California. He was 88.[32][33]

Filmography

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Novels and essays

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  • The Goose is Cooked (1940) (with Mitchell A Wilson - pseudonym Emmett Hogarth)
  • The Enemy Sea (1943) (novel)
  • The World Above (1951) (novel)
  • A Season Of Fear (1956)
  • "How the Blacklist Worked in Hollywood" (1970) (essay)
  • "Making Movies" (1971) (essay)
  • Zenia's Way (1980) (novel)
  • Children of Eden (1982) (unfinished novel)
  • To Illuminate Our Time: The Blacklisted Teleplays of Abraham Polonsky (1993)
  • Body and Soul: The Critical Edition (2002)
  • Force of Evil: The Critical Edition (1996)
  • Odds Against Tomorrow: The Critical Edition (1999)
  • You Are There Teleplays: The Critical Edition (1997)

References

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  1. ^ "Force of Evil". Film Forum. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
  2. ^ Robins, Mike (July 2005). "Force of Evil". Senses of Cinema.
  3. ^ Baxter, Brian (29 October 1999). "Abraham Polonsky – Film-maker who stood firm against witch hunts". The Guardian.
  4. ^ McGilligan, Patrick; Buhle, Paul (1997). "Abraham Polonsky". Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 487. ISBN 0-312-17046-7.
  5. ^ Buhle, Paul; Wagner, Dave (2001). A Very Dangerous Citizen: Abraham Lincoln Polonsky and the Hollywood Left. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 30. ISBN 0520223837.
  6. ^ Kipen, David (29 August 2001). "Flawed look at career of blacklisted director". SFGate. The American 20th century went to high school at DeWitt Clinton High in the Bronx. Multicultural before there was a name for it – at least a polite one – Clinton nurtured such diverse and influential figures as Bill Graham, James Baldwin, George Cukor, Neil Simon and Abraham Lincoln Polonsky.
  7. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, pp. 30–32.
  8. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, p. 26.
  9. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, p. 43.
  10. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, pp. 72–73.
  11. ^ "Abraham Polonsky – Biography". IMDb.
  12. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, p. 75.
  13. ^ a b c Goldstein, Patrick (20 January 1999). "He's Been There, Survived That". Los Angeles Times.
  14. ^ a b c Goldstein, Patrick (20 October 1997). "Cornered Rats and Personal Betrayals". Los Angeles Times.
  15. ^ American Public Media (2018). "American RadioWorks – Battles of Belief".
  16. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, p. 76.
  17. ^ McGilligan & Buhle 1997, pp. 485, 487: "Polonsky recalled how Garfield said to him at the time, 'You want to direct? So direct!'"
  18. ^ Sarris, Andrew (1968). The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968. New York: E.P. Dutton. p. 220. LCCN 69012602.
  19. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, p. 1.
  20. ^ Vaughn, Robert (1972). Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting (PDF). New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 140 – via World Radio History.
  21. ^ Vaughn 1972, p. 140.
  22. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, pp. 145–146.
  23. ^ "You Are There (1953–1972) Full Cast & Crew". IMDb.
  24. ^ Buhle & Wagner 2001, pp. 174–177.
  25. ^ "Yablans, Frank. Papers Concerning Mommie Dearest: Guide.". Archived from the original on 6 March 2014.
  26. ^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Abraham Polonsky (1910-1999)". Authors' Calendar.
  27. ^ "Guilty by Suspicion – Trivia". IMDb.
  28. ^ Parker, Joshua (2017). "McCarthyism's Discontents", in Joshua Parker and Ralph J. Poole (Eds.), Austria and America: 20th-Century Cross-Cultural Encounters. Vienna: Lit Verlag. ISBN 9783643908124. pp. 117-126; here: 119, 125.
  29. ^ "Red Hollywood (Video 1996)". IMDb.
  30. ^ Jensen, Jeff (5 February 1999). "Controversy surrounds Elia Kazan's honor". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  31. ^ "Some Rude to Kazan; 'Evil Right-Wing'; CNN's Bruce Morton Took Sides". March 22, 1999. Archived September 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  32. ^ Oliver, Myrna (October 28, 1999). "Hollywood Blacklist's Abraham Polonsky Dies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  33. ^ Honan, William H. (29 October 1999). "Abraham Polonsky, 88, Dies; Director Damaged by Blacklist". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
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