Dave Wagner

If I have figured out how this (so far quite neat) website works, it appears that I share having read and ownership of this book, A Very Dangerous Citizen, with no one amongst the LibraryThing community of exceptionally avid readers - or at least collectors. For some reason I doubt this is true and feel that I must have not scoured the corners of this website well enough, but it really does appear so. Unfortunate this is for two main reasons. First of all, simply, it is a good book (a show more personal favorite) and secondly, I as a late-night hack reviewer won't be able to do it the justice it deserves. Nonetheless I shall try.... Simply, Buhle and Wagner find in Polonsky a emblem for the Hollywood Left during the McCarthy era. Polonsky, the lawyer/educator/novelist/labor organizer/radio and television scriptwriter/film director/screenwriter (stuff biographies are made of) was himself blacklisted, though never realy made ineffectual. The book uses Polonsky's life as a catalyst and provides the reader with a well-written, well-researched, well-organized 274 page account of Hollywood's unsavory past as well as its resistance with a time overwhelmed by anti-communism. And Polonsky's two most popular movies, Force of Evil and Body and Soul (both noir films influential on the likes of Scorcese and Taratino, respectively), by the way, are most definitely recommended by this reviewer. I feel quite honored to give this book its debut review on LibraryThing and do urge the history buffs and filmgoers (and anyone else who may just need a non-fictional break from the deluge of hobbits) to rescue this book from the lonely, hungry existence it appears to be only leading on the disregarded shelfs of used bookstores. show less