Bu makalenin amacı, Jim Longhi’nin hala basılmamış olan oyunu Two Fingers of Pride’ı Gururun İki Parmağı ve yazılmasına sebep olan tartışmalı durumları incelemektir. Longhi’nin etkileyici yapıtı, İtalyan soyundan gelen New Yorklu liman işçisi Pete Panto’nun Brooklyn’in Red Hook rıhtımındaki komisyon ve rüşvet gibi yolsuzluklara bir son vermeye çalışırken mafya tarafından öldürülmesini konu alır. Panto’nun hikâyesi Arthur Miller’ın da dikkatini çekti ve 1951’de Longhi ile işbirliği sayesinde, Miller The Hook adını verdiği senaryoyu yazdı. Yönetmen Elia Kazan da bu maceraya katıldı fakat senaryo birkaç yapımcı tarafından reddedildi. Görünüşe göre Longhi kendi oyununu hem The Hook’un başarısızlığına hem de Elia Kazan’ın gişe rekorları kıran filmi Rıhtımlar Üzerinde 1954 ’ye bir tepki olarak yazdı. Bunu yaparken, Pete Panto’nun değişikliğinden ana karakteri İrlanda kökenli eski bir boksör ile değiştirmesi dışında Kazan ilham aldığına dair bir açıklama yapmadı ve II. Dünya Savaşı’ndan hemen önce New Yorklu liman işçilerinin sürdürdüğü tehlikeli hayattan ilham aldı

Violence and Corruption among New York Longshoremen: Jim Longhi and His Two Fingers of Pride

This paper aims at exploring a still unpublished play by Jim Longhi entitled Two Fingers of Pride 1955 , and the controversial circumstances that led to its composition. Longhi’s dramatic piece featured the tragic story of Pete Panto, a New York stevedore of Italian ancestry who had been murdered by the Mafia controlling the Red Hook docks of Brooklyn, while attempting to put an end to its crooked system of kickbacks and bribes. Panto’s story attracted Arthur Miller’s attention and, thanks to Longhi’s collaboration, in 1951, the playwright wrote a film script entitled The Hook. Director Elia Kazan was involved in the venture but, unfortunately, the script was turned down by several producers. Apparently, Longhi wrote his own play as a reaction to both the failure of The Hook, and the success of Elia Kazan’s blockbuster On the Waterfront 1954 , somehow inspired by Pete Panto’s vicissitudes even though Kazan never acknowledged his debt, besides replacing the main character with an ex-boxer of Irish descent , and by the dangerous lives led by New York longshoremen just before WWII

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