Director Robert Rossen has said that he prefers his '40s boxing classic Body and Soul to his later successes (which include The Hustler), and it remains a hallmark in the careers of a number of talented people who worked on it. Photographed by James Wong Howe, it has the gritty realism of newsreels; an original screenplay by Abraham Polonsky evokes life on the Lower East Side, as well as many sides of the boxing racket, all of them seamy. John Garfield gives a memorable performance as the Jewish boy who works his way up to middle-weight champion, battling the Mob as inevitably as he battles his opponents. Charles Hopkins notes, “The fight scenes are among the bloodiest and most harrowing ever put on film. Part of this was due to Howe's resourceful photography (he put on roller skates in order to dart in close to the fighters with a hand-held 35mm camera), and an even larger part was due to the brilliant editing of those sequences by Francis Lyon and Robert Parrish (who won Academy Awards).”