Abraham Polonsky

Blacklisted for refusing to name any fellow Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1951, writer-director Abraham Polonsky still managed to compile an impressive array of screen credits in a career interrupted nearly 20 years. Strongly influenced by his pharmacist father's socialist ideals, he practiced law for a few years and taught at NYC's City College before leaving the law behind in 1937 to devote himself to writing, first for radio. After joining the American Communist Party in the late 30s, Polonsky established and edited a local newspaper, The Home Front, then published his first novel, "The Goose Is Cooked," written with Mitchell A Wilson under the joint pseudonym Emmett Hogarth. Before signing a screenwriter's contract with Paramount, he published another novel, "The Enemy Sea" (1943), and his politics did not preclude his service behind enemy lines during World War II as part of the OSS (after all, Joseph Stalin was our ally).