Abraham polonsky

Today in Germany, everyone is being watched--even the watchers.

If you don't get killed, it's a lucky day for anybody.

A man could spend the rest of his life trying to remember what he shouldn't have said.

Kids win this'n'that every day. Thousands of them. One out of a hundred fights professionally. One out of a thousand's worth watchin', one out of a million's worth coffee and doughnuts.

You must never throw away things that are worth good money.

A holiday is when you celebrate something that's all finished up.

I don't take no dive for nobody. Whaddya think I am, a tanker!

What are you gonna do? Kill me? Everybody dies.

Money has no moral opinions.

Twenty years ago I wanted to move to a nice place so our Charley would grow up a nice boy and learn a profession. But instead we live in a jungle, so he can only be a wild animal. D'you think I picked the East Side like Columbus picked America?

First of all, directing is an idea that you have of a total flow of images that are going on, which are incidentally actors, words, and objects in space. It's an idea you have of yourself, like the idea you have of your own personality which finds its best representation in the world in terms of specific flows of imaginary images. That's what directing is.

Indians don't last in prison. They weren't born for it like the whites.

I want to be a fighter. So fight for something! Not for money.

Directors are like generals, political dictators, aggressive people...And everyone in the film is always grateful if you can tell them what to do.

What do you mean "gangsters"? It's business.

A holiday is when you celebrate something that's all finished up, that happened a long time ago and now there's nothing left to celebrate but the dead.

It's perversion. Don't you see what it is? It's not natural. To go to great expense for something you want, that's natural. To reach out to take it, that's human, that's natural. But to get your pleasure from not taking, from cheating yourself deliberately like my brother did today, from not getting, from not taking. Don't you see what a black thing that is for a man to do? How it is to hate yourself?

Do you know what it's like to love and be alone?

I'll kill you with my own hands rather than let you put the mark of Cain on my brother!

This is Wall Street, and today is important. Because tomorrow, July 4th, I intended to make my first million dollars--an excitingday in a man's life. The enterprise was slightly illegal.

Author details

Abraham Polonsky: Biography and Life Work

Abraham Polonsky was a notable Film director. The story of Abraham Polonsky began on December 5, 1910 in New York City, New York, U.S.. The legacy of Abraham Polonsky continues today, following their passing on October 26, 1999 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S..

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 . However, it was to be Polonsky's last credited film for more than 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.

Legacy and Personal Influence

Personally, Abraham Polonsky was married to Sylvia Marrow. Historically, their work is best remembered for Body and Soul.

Major Contributions

  • Body and Soul
  • Force of Evil

Philosophical Views and Reflections

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 Mc Givern . 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 .

In 1998, Polonsky was a co-winner (along with Casablanca screenwriter Julius Epstein ) of the Career Achievement Award presented by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association . Polonsky said during an interview prior to the award ceremony: "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."

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