Abby Mann

Writing

Abby Mann

Born 1927-12-01 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Abby Mann (1927–2008) was an American screenwriter and producer, best known for his socially conscious dramas and sharp character portrayals. He won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), which explored the moral responsibilities of judges during the Nazi regime. Mann later created the iconic television detective Kojak (1973), blending gritty realism with social commentary. Throughout his career, he was recognized for tackling controversial themes such as justice, prejudice, and human rights, leaving a lasting mark on both film and television.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Judgment at Nuremberg poster
8.0

In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.

Judgment at Nuremberg

1961

The Detective poster
5.9

New York City Police detective Joe Leland investigates the grisly murder of Teddy Leikman, the gay son of a politically influential department store owner. While investigating, he discovers links to official corruption in NYC in this drama that delves into a world of sex and drugs, homophobia, homosexuality and bisexuality.

The Detective

1968

Ship of Fools poster
6.6

A varied group of passengers boarding a ship bound for pre-WWII Germany represents a microcosm of early-1930s society.

Ship of Fools

1965

Indictment: The McMartin Trial poster
6.9

The McMartin family's lives are turned upside down when they are accused of serious child molestation. The family run a school for infants. An unqualified child cruelty "expert" videotapes the children describing outrageous stories of abuse. One of the most expensive and long running trials in US legal history, exposes the lack of evidence and unprofessional attitudes of the finger pointers which kept one of the accused in jail for over 5 years without bail.

Indictment: The McMartin Trial

1995

Medical Story poster
7.0

A young intern goes up against three older surgeons as to whether or not a young actress should get a hysterectomy.

Medical Story

1975

A Child Is Waiting poster
6.8

Dr. Matthew Clark is the head of a state institution for intellectually disabled children. Jean Hansen, a former music teacher anxious to give her life some meaning, joins the staff of the hospital. Jean, who tries to shelter the children with her love, suspiciously regards Dr. Clark's stern training methods. She becomes emotionally involved with 12-year-old Reuben Widdicombe, who has been abandoned by his divorced parents.

A Child Is Waiting

1963

Report to the Commissioner poster
6.6

Police officer Patty Butler, alias "Chicklet," is the live-in girlfriend of Thomas 'Stick' Henderson to gather evidence. Detective Bo Lockley is instructed to try to find her, not knowing she's also a cop.

Report to the Commissioner

1975

The Condemned of Altona poster
7.1

A dying German magnate invites his youngest son and daughter-in-law home to discuss the future of the family's shipbuilding empire. There, the daughter-in-law stumbles upon a secret of the family's Nazi past.

The Condemned of Altona

1962

Skag poster
NR

Pete "Skag" Skagska is a 56-year-old union foreman of a Pittsburgh steel mill until a crippling stroke forces him to stay home and try to put his life back together and deal with family problems.

Skag

1980

NBC: The First Fifty Years poster
NR

A celebration of 50 years of NBC broadcasting in radio and television, since first going on the airwaves on 15 November 1926.

NBC: The First Fifty Years

1976

Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story poster
5.9

A biographical portrayal of Simon Wiesenthal, famous Nazi Hunter. From his imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, the film follows his liberation and his rise to become one of the leading Nazi hunters in the world, bringing such criminals to justice as Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbee. (Written by Anthony Hughes)

Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story

1989

Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story poster
5.9

A biographical portrayal of Simon Wiesenthal, famous Nazi Hunter. From his imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, the film follows his liberation and his rise to become one of the leading Nazi hunters in the world, bringing such criminals to justice as Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbee. (Written by Anthony Hughes)

Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story

1989

Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story poster
5.8

For a generation, the mobs main money machine was the Teamsters Union. When Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, the fight was on to see who could follow him. Jackie Presser was the son of a long time union board member and when he retired, Jackie was elevated to one of the most powerful position in the country; President of the Teamsters Union.

Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story

1992

The Marcus-Nelson Murders poster
7.6

A homicide detective begins to suspect that the black teenager accused of murdering two white girls is being framed by his fellow detectives.

The Marcus-Nelson Murders

1973

Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story poster
8.0

Based on the true story of Clarence Brandley, a black man wrongly accused in 1980 of the murder of a 16-year-old white high school girl named Cheryl Ferguson. Brandley worked at Conroe High School, where Ferguson was visiting as a member of the Belleville High School volleyball team. Three days after her body was discovered, Brandley was arrested as the murderer. Jew Don Boney, a popular activist and Houston city council member, leads the fight to uncover the truth about the Ferguson murder. Mike DeGeurin, a Texas attorney, is brought in to act as the head defense attorney for Brandley, and is joined by a former minister, Jim McCloskey. The lawyers discover that not only is there a complete lack of evidence against Brandley, but the District Attorney, James Keeshan, has been strategizing with the presiding judge. After nine years in prison, three trials and a stay of execution that saved Brandley's life, justice finally prevails as Brandley is granted his freedom.

Whitewash: The Clarence Brandley Story

2002

War and Love poster
NR

Jacek, who is Jewish, miraculously manages to survive World War II in Nazi-occupied Poland. As a subplot to Jacek's story, which also involves a love affair with Haling ( Kyra Sedgwick ) and German soldiers' repeated attempts to kill him, is a tale of how young kids in the Warsaw ghetto devise their own method of fighting oppression.

War and Love

1985

The Greatest Gift poster
5.5

Reverend Holvak, a weak rural preacher from the 1940s, fights stiff-necked church deacons along with a violent, bullying sheriff whilst protecting his loved ones.

The Greatest Gift

1974

Judgment at Nuremberg poster
6.0

Judgment at Nuremberg is an American television play broadcast live on April 16, 1959, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. It was a courtroom drama written by Abby Mann and directed by George Roy Hill that depicts the trial of four German judicial officials as part of the Nuremberg trials. Claude Rains starred as the presiding judge with Maximilian Schell as the defense attorney, Melvyn Douglas as the prosecutor, and Paul Lukas as the former German Minister of Justice.

Judgment at Nuremberg

1959

Kojak: The Belarus File poster
6.8

Lt. Theo Kojak uncovers a Nazi conspiracy.

Kojak: The Belarus File

1985