The read
It runs a compact 1h 28m.
Synopsis
Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.
Ratings
IMDb5.1/10
1 audience votes
Key crew
- Joseph SeidenDirector
- Sholom SecundaOriginal Music Composer
Cast
- Chaim TauberMotel Friedman
- Malvina RappelEsther Friedman
- Maurice KronerBenjamin Rosenwald
- Berthe HartRebecca Rosenwald
- Seymour RechtzeitJack Rosenwald
- Jacob ZangerJacob 'Joseph' Frumkin
- Yetta ZwerlingChane Belle 'Annabella' Frumkin
- Gertrude KrauseRuth Frumkin
- Herman RosenDoctor
- Izidor FrankelBoss
- Seymour RechzeitJacob 'Jack' Rosenwald
- Maurice KrohnerBenjamin Rosenwald
Themes
strikeyiddish language