If we consider how the Hollywood Blacklist cheated us out of great films and brilliant careers that might otherwise have existed, it’s hard to think of a worse casualty than writer-director Abraham Polonsky (1910-1999).
“Might talkies be like the opera?” Polonsky once asked. “The main thing is the music but O the joy when the singers act and the songs are poetry....I assumed for Force of Evil that the three elements, visual image, actor, word, are equals....All I tried to do was use the succession of visual images, the appearance of human personality in the actors, and the rhythm of words in unison or counterpoint.”
The results, played out in the anguished love between a crooked New York lawyer (Garfield) and his honest brother (Thomas Gomez), is a tragedy of uncommon force. And then Polonsky couldn’t direct another feature for 21 years.
Wow! That was an awesome noir. It's a shame Polonsky was barred for 20 odd years from making movies post this. The loss is not just Polonsky's, but whole of Hollywood's! It was a death-knell to what could have been a remarkable career. *sigh*
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monty
Jonathan Rosenbaum on the film:If we consider how the Hollywood Blacklist cheated us out of great films and brilliant careers that might otherwise have existed, it’s hard to think of a worse casualty than writer-director Abraham Polonsky (1910-1999).
“Might talkies be like the opera?” Polonsky once asked. “The main thing is the music but O the joy when the singers act and the songs are poetry....I assumed for Force of Evil that the three elements, visual image, actor, word, are equals....All I tried to do was use the succession of visual images, the appearance of human personality in the actors, and the rhythm of words in unison or counterpoint.”
The results, played out in the anguished love between a crooked New York lawyer (Garfield) and his honest brother (Thomas Gomez), is a tragedy of uncommon force. And then Polonsky couldn’t direct another feature for 21 years.
iCheckFilms
Wow! That was an awesome noir. It's a shame Polonsky was barred for 20 odd years from making movies post this. The loss is not just Polonsky's, but whole of Hollywood's! It was a death-knell to what could have been a remarkable career. *sigh*Panunzio
Dieguito
Nice noir!monty
Top notch noir.CorPse
"All that Cain did to Able was murder him."Amy Adams
https://archive.org/details/FrcefEl1948