Trudy Gold
Hollywood, the Warner Brothers, the Jazz Singer and the Jews: Part 2

​​Trudy Gold - Hollywood, the Warner Brothers, the Jazz Singer and the Jews, Part 2

- All right, good evening everyone, and welcome. As with the last presentation, tonight what we’re trying to do, is to lighten up a bit. Because the world is so gloomy out there, and after all, we’ve just had Hanukkah. We’re going into the, certainly in England, it is the darkest time of the year. So I’m continuing now with Warner Brothers, and I’ll be interspersing the American series with programmes on Hollywood, and some of my colleagues will be looking at the “Great American Songbook.” So that’s the plan, along with the serious, and of course, programmes on politics, you’re going to have, I hope, a little bit more light. Now, last time when I was talking about “The Jazz Singer,” I mentioned to you that unfortunately, the great success of “The Jazz Singer,” it didn’t really impact at first on the Warner Brothers, because not only did Sam die age 39, but then Harry, the eldest brother, his 22-year-old son, Lewis, actually contracted blood poisoning when he was visiting Cuba and unfortunately, he died. Now, he was Harry Warner’s only son, and it completely shattered his world. And I already told you that there was a huge difference between the older brothers and the younger brothers. Sam and Jack were a pair, and Harry and Abe were a pair, and it had a lot to do with who was born in the old country, and who was born in America. Harry and Abe were very much the conventional ones. They were very Jewish. Their father, Benjamin, was still the family patriarch, and it was the wild ones, Jack and Sam, and now Sam is dead, and there’s going to be a huge split between the brothers.

And not only that, they’re going to split over religion. Jack had married a Jewish girl, and he fell madly in love with a beautiful young actress, had an affair with her, which completely upset Harry and his father, and then he married her. And that was one of the issues that split the brothers. But it was also about a style and a way of life. And the other point about Jack, I’ve already told you what a sort of showman he was, what an exhibitionist he was, how very rude he was. And some of the great stars who work for Warner Brothers, they’ve all written about it, people like Bette Davis, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart. In fact, when Humphrey Bogart left Warner Brothers, he said, “I kind of miss the arguments. I used to love the feud.” Anyway, whilst all this is going on, nevertheless, they are also releasing movies. And what they also wanted, they wanted to attract an audience from the theatre. And how better to do that than to bring in some very, very good stage actors. And the first one was George Arliss, and he’s going to appear in “Disraeli.” Can I have the next slide, please? But anyway, there you see “Disraeli” with Joan Bennett. And of course, I’ve lectured you in the past about “Disraeli.” And the story that’s told in the 1929 film, it’s played by the wonderful George Arliss. I’m going to give you a bit of background. He was an English actor, he was a playwright, he’d been very successful in America. He’d first toured America in 1901, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell’s troop. He was very upper middle class. He was half Italian. His father was a successful merchant.

He’d studied at the Guild Hall School of Music. He’d made his acting debut in Liverpool, and was very, very successful on the London stage. He excelled with Shakespeare, and was quite a man. Now, so also was Mrs. Patrick Campbell. She played Juliette, Ophelia, Lady Macbeth. And what’s interesting about Lady Patrick Campbell, she became her own manager/director, and had her own troop. She became a major theatrical presence, and was very close, by the way, to Sarah Bernhardt. And in 1914, Bernard Shaw wrote the original “Pygmalion” for her when she was 49 years old. She also produced a play called, “His Borrowed Plumes,” which was written by Lady Randolph Churchill, who of course was the mother of Winston. So this is the kind of world that George Arliss mixed in. Now, he only intended to remain in America for the tour, but he liked it, and he stayed for 20 years, and he starred in the play “Disraeli” for five years. It’s a biographical play, and it’s written around the time when Disraeli buys the Suez Canal. And the way the film goes, a series of… ‘Cause everybody wanted the Suez Canal, if you think about it. The brilliant engineer, de Lesseps, he’d created a canal, which cut the sea route to India by four and a half thousand miles. The British wanted it, the French wanted it, the Russians wanted it. And in this play, what happens is Disraeli has to thwart the plans of the Russian spies. And it’s also a lot of opposition from Gladstone. It’s a very interesting play. And then it’s actually, it becomes a silent film. And in 1929, Warner Brothers decide they’re going to make it as a sound film, because they think that having George Arliss, and having a biopic about someone like Disraeli is going to attract a more middle class audience.

Now, it won Arliss an Academy Award for the performance. Later on, he made 10 films for Warner Brothers. He becomes a very important actor. So that is “Disraeli,” that is Warner Brothers. And he worked closely with Warner Brothers head, a man called Darryl Zanuck, and he left Warner Brothers in 1933 along with Zanuck, who set up 20th Century. So he starred also in a very important film, as far as Jewish interest is concerned, “The House of Rothschild.” And I’m going to be talking about that when I look at the whole issue of Hollywood, and Jewish history, and the Jews. Now, the next interesting film… Warner Brothers, by the way, are going to win 29 Oscars. And the next important film is “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Obviously I’m picking and choosing. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Can we see the next slide, please? There you see George Arliss. He’s a very interesting looking man, isn’t he? Let’s go on to “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” There you are. Now, “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” it’s directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, it’s produced by Henry Blanke and Hal Wallis, and it’s adapted from Reinhardt’s previous year’s production at the Hollywood Bowl. It’s using Mendelssohn’s music, which was re-orchestrated by the extraordinary Erich Korngold. It’s had an incredible star cast. It starred Olivia de Havilland as Hermia, Dick Powell as Lysander, James Cagney as Bottom, Puck, Mickey Rooney and Joe E. Brown as Flute. Now, I’m going to tell you a little bit about Max Reinhardt, because he’s often going to come into the story. And Max Reinhardt was one of the great characters of Germany and Austria. You’ve also got to remember that post 1933, you have a wealth of talent hitting Hollywood from Germany. UFA, which was of course the German film production company, was very closely linked to Hollywood.

Plus, of course, UFA was one of the great film studios of Europe. There was no censorship, and you had an incredible range of actors, and directors, and producers, who broke all the rules. And they would produce things, films that Hollywood wouldn’t dare to touch. For example, the first talkie, is the story of a child killer made by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre, who of course goes on to take part in “Casablanca.” They touched subjects like drug addiction, cross-dressing, homosexuality, madness, “The Cabinet of Dr. Mabuse.” Much of this talent is later going to flood to Hollywood. Let me tell you a little bit about Goldmann. He was born Maximilian Goldmann. He changed his name to Max Reinhardt. He’s born in Baden near Vienna. And he began as an apprentice at the bank. His father was a merchant, but he didn’t want that world. He wanted acting. And he becomes an actor. He did his stage debut in 1890. He relocates to Berlin. He joins the Deutsches Theatre. He’s a man of huge ambition and huge talent. Quickly, he manages to get people to invest him. He becomes an important theatre director, both in Berlin, and later on in Vienna. He also purchased, he made enough money to purchase the Schloss Leopoldskron. He spent 20 years restoring it, and it’s the set, by the way, for the interiors of “Sound of Music.” And in 1939, it was confiscated by the Nazis. He’s also terribly important, Max Reinhardt, because he and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, actually established the Salzburg Festival, and staged “Ever Man,” with Richard Strauss. So basically, you’re looking at an incredibly important figure in the history of theatre. Now, what is also fascinating about him, he had wonderful people working for him. People like Billy Wilder, people like William Dieterle, people like Otto Preminger, they all apprenticed with Max Reinhardt.

And he came… Look, the Nazis come to power, he comes to America, and he manages to stage “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the Hollywood Bowl, and then Warner Brothers take it on with William Dieterle, who’s already worked for him, and they take it on, and make it into a film with these extraordinary actors. Now, William Dieterle was himself very interesting. You have to take on just how Jewish Hollywood was. He was the youngest of nine children born to a poor Jewish family. By 1919, he’s a member of Max Reinhardt’s film… Because Max Reinhardt, I should have stressed, it’s not just theatre, he’s also making films for UFA. He acted in 60 films in Germany. He directs his first film in 1930. By the mid '30s, he signed with Warner Brothers, and he worked… And he was delighted that his mentor joined him on “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” And it’s interesting, because when Max Reinhardt directs with William Dieterle, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” he doesn’t yet speak English. So he gives his instructions to Dieterle, who conveys it to the actors. And if you haven’t seen it, you should get hold of it. It’s absolutely riotous. And whether it’s great or not is up to you. But can we see an extract with James Cagney? And I should also mention that James Cagney had broken his leg before production, which delayed production for a while, and it drove Jack Warner mad. And he said that if he didn’t appear on set, he was going to break his other leg. So let’s have a look at James Cagney. Here we go. James Cagney and Shakespeare. He was an incredibly talented actor, you know. He was a song and dance man. There you go, he’s become Bottom.

• Pyramus, your cue is passed. It’s never tyre.

• If I were fair Thisbe, I were only thine. If I were fair Thisbe. If I were fair Thisbe, I were only thine.

• Oh me.

• There’s Joe E. Brown, remember him from “Some Like it Hot?”

• Strange.

• We are haunted. Pray, masters.

• Okay, we can we leave that there. Okay, can we have the next slide, please? There you see, Max Reinhardt. He was a very good looking guy. He died in the war. And also in Hollywood, post 1933, you had a huge German Jewish community working in Hollywood. A lot of them became writers. Of course, you had the wonderful music people like Erich Korngold. And Korngold adapted Mendelssohn for “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” And of course it was banned in Germany even though Mendelssohn had been converted to Christianity by his father, and he’d actually married the daughter of a Swiss pastor. Nevertheless, for the Nazis, it’s about blood, and he was banned. So not only was he banned, of course, when you think of how many Jewish actors were involved, it’s not surprising. Now, the other kind of film that the Warner Brothers were interested in, was the kind of biopics with a message, because they also, remember one of their aims, all the moguls are making an awful lot of money. One of their ideas was, as I said to you before, to attract a middle class audience. So let’s actually look at certain themes, and with great actors. And one of the great actors they brought in, was a man called Paul Muni. And the film I want to show you now, is “The Life of Emile Zola” of 1937. Can we see it please? See the next slide. Now, it’s directed by William Dieterle, who I’ve already told you about. Now, what is interesting about “The Life of Emile Zola,” it’s going to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and also the music score by Max Steiner. Max Steiner and Erich Korngold dominated music in the '30’s and '40’s in Hollywood. And this is the review in “The New York Times,” “Rich, dignified, honest and strong, it is once the finest historical film ever made and the greatest screen biography, greater even than 'The Story of Louis Pasteur,’ with which the Warners squared their conscience last year. Paul Muni’s portrayal of Zola is, without doubt, the best thing he has ever done.” New Yorker, “Picture of considerable distinction with no nonsense.”

However, even though certain things in the film were interpreted as a direct attack on Nazi Germany, remember, it wins three awards. It wins Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and as I said, Steiner… But the point was, they don’t actually, if you know the story of Emile Zola, he of course was the great French writer who got involved in the Dreyfus affair. And he wrote “J'Accuse,” that incredible letter that was published in Clemenceau’s newspaper, I can’t remember the name now, it’ll come to me in a minute, in Clemenceau’s newspaper in which he accuses the general staff, he accuses them all of antisemitism. The word Jew, does not appear in the dialogue and even though it’s 1937, it doesn’t deal with antisemitism, which is fascinating when you think about what’s going on in the world by 1937. So let me talk a little bit about Paul Muni. Can we go on, please? Now, Paul Muni was an extraordinary actor. He was an absolute master of disguise, and he was a very, very… Many regarded him as the finest actor in Hollywood. He was born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund. He was born in Lemberg, in the Habsburg Empire. It’s now Lwow. His family immigrated in 1902, escaping poverty, and all the upsets that was going on in the empires. They settled in Chicago. Now, he started his career in the Yiddish theatre with his parents. Both his parents were Yiddish actors. He developed so much skill with makeup, that it enabled him to play much older characters. In fact, in his first role, he was only 12, and he played a man of 80. He was discovered by Maurice Schwartz when he was still a teenager, who founded the Yiddish Arts Theatre.

You’ve got to remember that New York and Chicago are awash with Jews from Eastern Europe who have brought their Yiddish culture with them. He becomes noticed by critics. And by 1926, he is in Broadway, his first Broadway role in a play called “We Americans.” And it’s the first time he had ever acted in English. In 1921, he married Bella Finkel, who was also an actress from the Yiddish Theatre. And it was a good marriage, and they remained married until his death. Now, Hollywood talent scouts, remember, after the coming of the talkies, they are out for talent. We discussed last time how many of the great careers were ruined, the careers of the silent movies, because they couldn’t speak properly. And he’s recognised and signed up by Warner Brothers for a long-term contract. They built him as the screen’s greatest actor. And he went on… By 1935, he’d already made “The Story of Louis Pasteur,” which won an Oscar. This is the message. The Warner Brothers were the one Hollywood studio that also, once in a while, art for art’s sake, this is Harry, they wanted to make message movies and then “The Life of Emile Zola.” Now, I’ll be dealing with this in another presentation, but I just wanted to tell you, during the war he’s very much involved with anti-fascism. He becomes very political. And in 1946, he becomes involved in a play written by Ben Hecht. I’ll be talking about Ben Hecht later today, but I’m going to give him a whole session because he was one of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters, but he was also an activist. And later on he worked for the Irgun. He wrote a play called, “A Flag Is Born,” and it’s the story of the birth of Israel. It’s directed by Luther Adler, and starring, along with Muni, it’s the first role of a young actor, who was coming, through working with the Actors Studio and Lee Strasberg, and that young actor was Marlon Brando. Years later, Brando said that Muni was the greatest actor he ever worked with.

He came to London in 1949. If you were old enough and lucky enough, you saw him at London’s Phoenix Theatre in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” It was the first British production. He took over from Lee J. Cobb, another great Jewish actor who’d come from the Yiddish Theatre. He’d played the role on Broadway. In 1952, he travelled to Italy to star in a film by the blacklisted Joseph Losey. This is the period of McCarthy. He was so against the blacklist, he took his great talent to Italy to help Joseph Losey out. In 1956, he won an award. He goes back to Broadway. He stars in “Inherit the Wind.” Unfortunately, he contracted a terrible eye disease and he’s replaced by the Jewish Melvyn Douglas. Who would’ve known that Melvyn Douglas, the quintessential sophisticated man, was in fact a Jew. As an actor, he said of himself, he’s in character, “Acting is not just a career, but it is an obsession.” So that is the great Paul Muni. And I think we have a clip, please, have we not? Look at the makeup.

• What is your name?

• Satin in this district. Montmartre, Georgette or Madeleine. Does it matter?

• When did you come to Paris?

• 100 years ago, when I was 17.

• You got me to this. You’ve got to stick by me.

• Joseph Schildkraut.

• With that cursed Zola still writing, still stirring up trouble. The whole world screaming for the truth.

• Admit nothing.

• You can’t hold it off much longer. You can’t, I tell you.

• Tremendous pressure has been put upon you. “Save the army, convict Zola, and save France.” I say to you, pick up that challenge! Save the army.

• Your husband, Madam, is under arrest in the Cherche-Midi prison.

• Why, you must be mad.

• You will serve your husband best by being quiet and saying nothing about this. If you don’t, things will go badly for him. Search the house.

• This case is what really turned Theodor Herzl into a Zionist.

• Alfred Dreyfus, you’re condemned to deportation for life. Court martial also orders that prior to this sentence being carried out, said Captain Dreyfus shall be paraded before the garrison of Paris, there publicly degraded and dismissed from the service.

• The mob was screaming, “Death to the Jews.” That was the .

• Gentlemen of the newspapers, proclaim to the world that I’m innocent! I’m innocent!

• [Crowd Member] Burn the Zola!

• There’s Zola himself.

• Let’s get him.

• Okay, we’ll stop that there. Should we stop there? So basically, this is one of Warner Brothers’ wonderful message movies. But as I said, when you think back with the hindsight of history, what is actually going on in Europe at the time. Although they made allusions to tyranny in the great speech by Zola, nevertheless, when you consider the number of Jews that are involved, they don’t put their heads above the parapet. Paul Muni was going to, later on, a tremendous amount. But at this stage, the studios, they so much want to be American, even though the older brothers see themselves very much as Jews, nevertheless, they are first and foremost American. So Warner Brothers, a kind of maverick studio, because the other thing we’re going to talk about later, the gangster movies, but nevertheless, every year, and they also made the story of Paul Ehrlich, the “Magic Bullets,” of course, Paul Ehrlich was the Jewish scientist who created the cure for syphilis. By the way, when he did that, he was completely lambasted by the right wing Catholic press in Vienna. It’s absolutely extraordinary because they felt this Jew was interfering with natural affairs. So anyway, with all the Hollywood fanfare, it’s an important movie. And now I want to turn to a completely different style of Warner Brothers. And let’s have a look at “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” Can we see the next slide, please?

Now that of course, stars, Errol Flynn, who’d been taken on by Warner Brothers, Olivia de Havilland, who’d appeared first in Max Reinhardt’s version of “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” at the Hollywood Bowl, and then come to film. Of course, she was part of the de Havilland family, and the sister of Joan Fontaine. And the music is by the wonderful Korngold. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis, an interesting character, he had 19 nominations for Best Picture, and he won with “Casablanca.” He was born Hal B. Wallis. He was one of the best producers at Warner Brothers. He was born Aaron Blum Wolowicz. And his parents have fled from the Pale of Settlement. He is born in 1898. In 1922, the family moved to LA, and he went to work, first of all, in the publicity department of Warner Brothers. He’s gradually worked his way up to production. When I think today, how all these industries are so bureaucratized, in those days, if you had the will to work, and talent, I mean, Irving Thalberg was running MGM by the time he was 21. It was a completely different world if you had talent, if you had chutzpah, and if you had this incredible energy you could get on. He actually… There’s a lovely, lovely story. He wins the Oscar for “Robin Hood.” And what happens is, when he’s named for Best Picture, he gets up to pick up the Oscar, but what happens is Jack Warner blocks his way, so do the whole of the family. And he’s left there shattered while Jack Warner takes the Oscar. And he actually had a career to span 50 years. But this is what he said, “I tried to get out of the row of seats and into the aisle, but the entire Warner family sat blocking me. I was humiliated and furious. Almost 40 years later, I haven’t recovered from the shock.”

As I said, he left Warner Brothers one month later. He won two Academy awards. Not only that, but he won twice the Irving Thalberg Award. Now the director of this particular film, “Adventures of Robin Hood,” is the wonderful Michael Curtiz. Now he was born Mano Kaminer in Budapest. Can we go on please? Let’s have a look at the clip, and then I’ll tell you. Actually, let’s have a look at the clip. The great fight, you all know the story of Robin Hood so I’m not going to tell you. This is the great fight scene between the evil Basil Rathbone, the brilliant British stage actor who, before he played Sherlock Holmes, was often the villain. He was a great sword fighter. He taught Errol Flynn to fight actually. And here you see the great sword fight between Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn, and the music by Korngold. So let’s have fun. God, they were fit, weren’t they?

• Did I upset your plans?

• You’ve come to Nottingham once too often.

• When this is over, my friend, there’ll be no need for me to come again. Your sword, Gisbourne.

• Do you know any prayers, my friend ?

• I’ll say one for you.

• Okay, Jessie, I think we’ve had enough of that great fun. It’s great, it is bound to be on over the holidays. All these films are, and of course, I’m coming on to Michael Curtiz now because he also directed my favourite film, “Casablanca,” which I did a whole session on. You can get it… You can actually, if you want to see the session, now that we’ve archived the collection, you can see it. So he’s born in Budapest. His father was a carpenter, his mother, an opera singer. He had a very small… They lived in, they were quite poor… Budapest at this time, by the way, was 25% Jewish. They lived in a small apartment. He had to share a room with his two brothers and a sister. He was very bright and he was always mad about theatre. As a young child, they would set up in the cellar with his brothers and sisters and friends and do productions. He goes to university. Then he went to the Royal Academy of Theatre and Art in Budapest always, always wanted the theatre. As I said, he actually began acting in his cellar when he was eight years old. He was always the director. He became a travelling player, Ibsen, Shakespeare, various languages, he had many languages. He joined the circus, then he joined this troupe of actors. They performed throughout Europe. He performed in French, in Hungarian, Italian and German. And of course, finally when he came to Hollywood, he had to become proficient in English as well, if you call American English, but the point is, David Niven writes about him a lot in his autobiography because the use he made of language was quite often, shall I put it, colourful. Now, when he was touring with his company, he later said, I’m quoting, “We did everything, bill posters, prints, programmes, set scenes, wardrobe. Sometimes we travelled in trains, sometimes on stage coaches, sometimes on horseback, sometimes we played in town halls, sometimes in little restaurants with no scenery at all. Sometimes we gave shows outside.” He was a real roustabout, but he was very, very talented.

By 1912, he’s working at the Hungarian National Theatre and he was also a member, by the way, of the Hungarian fencing team. The Hungarian fencing team, fascinating, was mainly composed of Jewish fencers. It’s an interesting story. This was in the Stockholm Olympics. He directed Hungary’s first feature film in which he also had a leading role. A man of unbelievable talent, a man of incredible energy. He travelled from city to city, working on silent films. After World War I, he returns to Hungary for, beg pardon, he returns to Hungary for World War I. He’s wounded on the Russian front. And this is what he wrote, “My intoxicating joy of life was interrupted. The world had gone mad. We were taught to kill.” He was actually assigned, because he’d been wounded, he comes back and he’s assigned to make a fundraising documentary for the Hungarian Red Cross. And after the war, Hungary breaks away from the Habsburg Empire and he becomes director of Phoenix Films, which was the leading film studio in Budapest. He directed 45 films. Then he goes to Vienna. And there he said, “I learned the basic laws of film art, which in those days had progressed further in Vienna than anywhere else.” One of the films he made, “Moon of Israel,” was shocked with a cast of 5,000 people. And it caught the attention of the Warner Brothers, who were always, every year they would come to Europe scouting for talent, or they sent their talent agents over. All the studios did that. Why did Ingrid Bergman come to Hollywood? Why did Greta Garbo? If you think about some of the great actors, but also the directors, Harry goes to Europe in 1926 just to meet Curtiz. And Curtiz had developed a very, very interesting style, very much influenced by German expressionism, UFA, I’ve already mentioned UFA, and offered him a contract.

And by the time he joined Warner Brothers, he had 64 films to his credit. He was to work at Warner Brothers for 28 years. And in fact, when he directed his first film at Warner Brothers, he didn’t even speak English. The first film was a romantic gangster movie. And to gain experience, he persuaded a sheriff to lock him up in jail for a week so that he could experience it. He said in his autobiography, “The only things that are different in different parts of the world are customs. But these customs are easy to find out if you could read and investigate.” And during the ‘30s, he directed… He had incredible energy. He directed at least four films a year. His American career had really taken off by 1935. And you’ve got to remember, Warner Brothers couldn’t compete with MGM costume dramas because of the high production costs. However, they do decide to go into it in a more low budget way, and they created a film called “Captain Blood” with the young Errol Flynn, unknown Errol Flynn. That film was incredibly successful, and it made Curtiz the leading director of Warner Brothers. He made “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” I’ve shown you. And it was the most profitable film that year and won three Academy Awards. So he was so successful that Warner Brothers actually created a special unit just for him. In 1939, he directed a short film called “Sons of Liberty,” which starred Claude Rains. I’ve been unable to get any footage of it. I’m very upset. It’s a biopic which dramatised the Jewish contribution to American Independence. Very important to make in 1939. It won an Academy Award for the Best Short.

He then made “The Sea Hawk” in 1940, which was a war film. And of course, very sympathetic to the British, America doesn’t enter the war till Pearl Harbour, remember? And of course, in 1942, everybody’s favourite film, “Casablanca,” which was made in six weeks, written by the Epstein Brothers. It was a low budget film. Nothing was meant… If you think about it, they first wanted Ronald Reagan to star, and then George Raft. They all turned it down. Humphrey Bogart was, by that time, not a very profitable property. He takes the role and Ingrid Bergman. And the reason she always looks blank, she doesn’t know who she’s going to go off with because the Epstein Brothers hadn’t yet finished the script. And it’s interesting, when one of the Epstein brothers later wrote his autobiography, he said, “The problem was we hadn’t made our minds up. And I only wrote it for the money, you know.” Anyway, shall we see the next important film? This is “Jezebel” starring Bette Davis and was directed, again, by another very influential Jew called William Wyler. His father had been… Shall we have a look at William Wyler? “Jezebel” was really… Bette Davis was desperate to play Scarlet in “Gone With the Wind,” and she didn’t get it. So this was Warner Brothers attempt to soothe her. She was one of their great stars, always quarrelling with Jack Warner.

And that’s why they gave her “Jezebel” with Henry Fonda. If you haven’t seen it, you are in for a huge treat. You can get hold of it. William Wyler, he was born in Alsace. His father had been born in Switzerland, was a travelling salesman. His mother was a cousin of Carl Laemmle, who was, of course, had created Universal Studios. Evidently he was a real troublesome child. He was expelled from a lot of schools. He was on the streets. His mother had a great sense of high culture and she introduced him and his brother to opera, to concerts, and also, she was mad about early cinema. And he and his friends would sometimes stage amateur productions. A lot of these characters started out as wild children. And somehow they managed to channel that incredible energy into huge excellence. He was supposed to… By this time, his father was doing better. They had a haberdashery business. He was meant to go into it. Mulhouse, after the First World War, it’s no longer in Germany, it’s now in France. After World War I, he doesn’t want to go into the business. He goes to Paris trying to sell shirts and ties. He’s lousy at it, he’s very poor. And it’s at this stage, his mother realised he needed something better. So she contacted Carl Laemmle, who was a cousin of hers, remember? And he came to Europe every year looking for talent. And he was hired to work at Universal. He stayed in New York, by the way, on his way for a year and had a wailing time. Then in LA he starts out as a cleaner. He has moved sets. He’s hired as… Then finally, he’s hired as a second director.

By 1925, he is directing westerns. And then he’s naturalised. And then he moves to Warner Brothers, where he directs 'Jezebel" with Bette Davis. And it sparks a 20-year run of great films. If you think Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday,” Barbara Streisand in “Funny Girl,” Bette Davis said it was Wyler who made her a far better actress than she had ever been. She won the Oscar for “Jezebel.” He won three Oscars for Best Picture. It was said of him, “He was the bonafide perfectionist, one of Hollywood’s most bankable movie makers.” He also collaborated with the brilliant, brilliant, great Toland, who, of course, was used by… He was the great lighting man, the great cameraman. He was used by Orson Welles in the great “Citizen Kane.” He was also very close to John Huston and his film, “Mrs. Miniver,” very important, “Someone should salute England,” he said. His film, “Ben Hur,” he made the Charlton Heston epic, “Ben Hur.” He won 11 Oscars for it. So another one of Warner Brothers’ great directors. Can we go on please? And now we come to a revolution in pictures, we come to the gangster movies, the great gangster movies that are going to change everything. This is pre-code, remember? And the gangster movies become unexpectedly, incredibly popular. Now let’s have a look at the first of them, “Underworld.” There you see “Underworld.” It’s a Paramount film, but they’re very much going to set the scene. And “Underworld” is directed by a fascinating character called Josef von Sternberg. The von, of course, is added. Can we have a look at the next scene, please? The next, Josef von Sternberg. He was born Jonas Sternberg to a very poor Orthodox Jewish family in Leopoldstadt in Vienna. His father was Moses.

He’d been a former soldier in the Habsburg Army. Then they moved to America. His mother joined him, his wife, Josef’s mother joined him in 1901 with her five children when he was seven years old. Three years later, the mother took the children back to Vienna. It was a very, very troublesome marriage. The father was a real… He was a bit of a tyrant. He was also very religious, and he wanted his kids to be religious Jews in America. The children preferred Vienna. And Josef later said the happiest childhood memories were in Vienna. And in 1908 though, they tried to patch up the marriage. The mother goes back to Queens with the children, he becomes an American citizen. And then, like so many of them, lots of different careers, goes into the rag trade, sells, became acquainted with very ornate textiles. And later on they’re going to be used to embellish his stars. He becomes one of the great directors of set peace. In 1911, World Film Company. By 1914, he progresses, he’s learning the trade. And by 1917, he’s making American Army films for recruits. He’s apprenticed as a director of silence. He’s fascinated by photography. He becomes one of the masters of the framing of the shots. He then goes on, he’s very restless, he goes on the road in Europe. He then comes back to America, United Artists, MGM. And finally, the first gangster movie is based on a story by Ben Hecht called “Underworld.” He then goes to UFA, which is Paramount’s sister studio, UFA, the greater Weimar cinema, where he directs Emil Jannings in his first talking.

Now Emil Jannings you will know about because he stars with Marlene Dietrich in “The Blue Angel.” He was one of those Germans who stayed behind and worked for the Nazis. She of course didn’t. In fact, his great partnership was with the great Marlene Dietrich. Between ‘33 and '35, they made six brilliant, controversial films for Paramount, “The Scarlet Empress,” which, of course, is the story of Catherine of Russia. Very controversial. “Shanghai Express,” “The Devil is a Woman.” They’re all exotic. They’re all extremely beautifully framed. They’re sexually charged. And the story was, were he and Dietrich lovers, who knows? 1931, he directed the “American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser. Dreiser absolutely hated it. In London, he comes to work for the Hungarian Jew, Alexander Korda. He directs “Claudius” with Charles Laughton. That was very much at the behest of Marlene Dietrich. He also becomes… In “Underworld,” of course, he works with the brilliant Ben Hecht, who I’m going to talk about later. Can we go on please? “Little Caesar.” “Little Caesar” was one of the great gangster movies. It was taken on by Warner Brothers and it makes a star of Edward G. Robinson. And, of course, it’s written by the brilliant Ben Hecht. Now, Edward G., come and see his face, please. I want to talk about Edward G. Robinson because he is one of my heroes.

He was born Emanuel Goldenberg into a Yiddish speaking family in Bucharest in Romania. He’s the fifth son of Sarah nee Guttman and Yeshaya Moyshe Goldenberg, who was a builder. The father goes to America and he, according to a later account, he came to New York City because one of his brothers were attacked in a pogrom and which made the family decide they had to get out. This is so much the story of so many of these Eastern European Jews. It was either poverty or it was pogrom. And this is what he said, this is what Edward later said, “At Ellis Island I was born again.” He grew up on the Lower East Side. He had his Bar Mitzvah, a religious family. He went to the City College of New York. He decided he was going to become a criminal lawyer. But he always had an interest in acting, led to him being awarded an American Academy of Dramatic Arts, a scholarship. And that’s when he changed his name to Edward G. Robinson. He kept the G. for Goldenberg because he said he would never forget. He made his theatre debut he becomes a very good character actor on the stage. And his first silent film in 1923, he played a gangster on Broadway in “The Basket,” which this is what led to film roles. By 1930, he had decided to opt for Hollywood. And it’s “Little Caesar” which makes him a star. And he serves a long-term contract with Warner Brothers.

In the early days, he always plays gangsters. Warner Brothers developed the gangster movie, usually using Ben Hecht. Now Ben Hecht, as I said, I’m going to do a whole session on him, he had started out as a journalist. He was one of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters. And he wrote this… He came to Hollywood because his friend Wolf Mankowitz, wrote him a letter saying, “Come to Hollywood. There’s not enough talent here. And for $300 a shot, you can make a fortune.” And, of course, some of these great writers writing for the movies. So anyway, he is the first… He was very anti-fascist. He was one of the few who was prepared to speak out about what was happening in Germany. He was the first to portray Nazism as a threat in America. In the film he plays an FBI agent in “Confessions of a Nazi Spy.” He was very active in calling for a boycott of all German goods. He was in many of Warner Brothers biopics. He plays Paul Ehrlich in “Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet,” which I’ve mentioned to you. He also plays another Jew, Paul Julius Reuter, in his “Dispatch from Reuters.” Reuters, of course, was created by a Jew called Julius Reuter. “The Stranger” in 1947, if you haven’t seen it, it’s a wonderful film. “The Stranger” is about, he plays a Nazi hunter and Orson Welles plays a Nazi hiding as an English school teacher in the middle of America. It’s a really, really good film. And the De Newmont when he realises that this teacher is in fact a Nazi, he’s actually at a supper table when Orson Welles’ character is talking about Germany. He pretending to be an anti-Nazi. And he says how there’s no tradition of democracy in Germany. And one of the people at the table said, “But hold on, what about Karl Marx?” And the character said, “But Marx was a Jew.” And that’s when Edward G. in the film sees it. He was very politically active. And of course one of his other great films was “Double Indemnity.” A wonderful, wonderful picture.

One of the great film noirs. Important to remember that many of these characters, not just the Jews who are already in America, and many of the liberals already in America, but many of these German and Austrian Jews and liberals fleeing to America, bring with them film noir and the technique of German expressionism. That’s what makes Hollywood, I think, of this particular period, its greatest era. I mean, this is the era I love most, but he is politically very active. He donates $250,000 of his own money to organisations involved in war relief. Unfortunately, in the ‘50s, he’s called to testify to HUAC, he’s cleared of communist involvement, but he was a grey lister. And after that he worked at minor studios. But he is rehabilitated by the '70s, but more about him later. In fact, I think I will, let’s go on and have a clip from “Little Caesar,” but then I think I’ll stop there. And the others I can bring in when I talk about Ben Hecht. Mervyn Leroy, another Jew who was the producer for Warner Brothers another Jewish film producer. More about him later. Let’s have a clip of, then we’re stopped there. This is from “Little Caesar.” Remember this is the immortalising of gangster folks.

• A couple of outside yaps, especially bad shots.

• Come on, what is it? Let’s have it.

• It’s really based on Al Capone.

• You’re through. You hire these mugs, they miss. Now you’re through. If you ain’t out of town by tomorrow morning, you won’t never leave it except in a pine box. I’m taking over this territory. From now on it’s mine.

• You’re growing, Rico. So this is what you’ve been after all the time, eh? I seen it in your eyes the first time I met you. You are no good, Rico. But if you think you can muscle in on me like you did on Sam Vettori, you’re off your nut. I suppose you forgot all about Pete Montana, huh?

• How’s Diamond Pete going to stop me? He may be your boss, but he ain’t mine.

• Sam didn’t feel that way about him. Sam knew who gave orders.

• Yeah, Sam was too soft. Diamond Pete could scare him, but I ain’t no Sam. Sam is through. Now you’re through, too.

• All right, we’ll stop it there. What an actor. And you’ve also got to remember, this is also the backdrop of the Depression. I’ve got the blob in the middle of the screen, Jessie, again. But anyway, I had too much material because it’s such a wonderful scene. But we will come back to it. So what I’ll do now is I’ll have a look at some of the questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Ron has a definition of the “Great American Songbook.” Yes, if you send it on the chat.

Q: “Can the black blocks be removed?”

A: I’m hoping. Yes, yes. Or…

This is from Rose. “I’m at the moment reading a book, which is based on history called 'Mother Daughter Traitor Spy’ and it’s the late ‘30s in the presence of Nazis in Hollywood.” Yeah, I’m going to be doing sessions on that.

This is from… “As a professional makeup artist, I love seeing the evolution of makeup in film, TV, and theatre.”

Q: “Oh, evidently, what year was 'Casablanca?’”

A: Oh, dear, I can’t remember. I really can’t, I think it was a couple of years ago. Go to library and type “Casablanca.”

Yes, of course, “Hal Wallis,” says Ron, “also produced the "Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis” comedy. I’m sorry about the black boxes. I have no idea what went wrong. But anyway, I hope you didn’t spoil your enjoyment too much.

Oh, “On Tuesday you mentioned your 100 favourite films.” It’s not just mine, it’s all my colleagues. I will speak to Judy Ferrara tomorrow and I will… The list was made available, but about a year and a half ago. So let’s see if we can send it round again. I’m afraid it’s rather classic, you know, “All About Eve,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “Casablanca,” “Some Like It Hot.” In fact, there aren’t many films after 2000. But, look, it’s our choices. Everyone’s got there.

Q: This is from Blanca Abraham’s. “Recently in Vienna, I saw the plaque honouring Richard Stoltz, who worked in Hollywood during the World War II years. He returned to live in Vienna afterwards and was lionised by the Austrian, the plaque and not mansion of why Stoltz was America that he even left. Can you comment on his career?”

A: At another time, yes. Yes. He was a songwriter.

Oh, yes, Monty’s saying you can watch the gangster movies on YouTube. And they didn’t have the code, though in “Scarface” they had to put a warning and change the ending. It’s fascinating. A lot of the characters who came, a lot of the writers, don’t forget that Ben Hecht had been a reporter in Chicago and he was used to crime thrillers. And it really took on, it supported the… Remember it’s the backdrop to prohibition. It’s the dark side. Whereas MGM is churning out all these wonderful musicals to make us feel better about ourselves.

Oh, and evidently “The Strangers” available on YouTube. Really watch it, it’s wonderful.

Q: “There are so many Jewish males that became successful actors. Why was not this the case for Jewish female…”

A: Oh, yes, think Paulette Goddard, think Shelley Winters, think Theda Bara, yeah. I can think of lots of them. Hedy Lamarr, who was considered the most beautiful woman in the world at one… That’s how she was billed. She was more than an actress, if I can say that. She also created an early computer. She was a genius.

Oh, this is from Ron who gave a brilliant presentation. This is from Ron, sorry, Ron Bick. “At the end of your talk, you were talking about Edward G. Robinson playing gangsters and how in life he was anti-Fascist. Greatly lead into the next talk. My wife and I are listening to gangsters versus the Nazis. How Jewish mobsters battled Nazis in 1930s America.” I love it. And they also backed the Irgun, by the way, Ron. “Eg. Rob Bornstein.” Yes, I didn’t have time to talk about this. Thank you, Ron. He was a keen art collector in the 1950s. MoMA in New York had an entire exhibition of his great paintings, mainly post-impressionism. He was a very cultured, sophisticated man. If I remember correctly though, he had to sell a lot of his art collection because of a divorce settlement. But yes, he was a sophisticated, cultured, sensitive, clever man. He loved America. He believed passionately in social justice. He was not a communist. He found communism, totalitarianism of any form disgusting. He’s one of the people, you know, if you can play the game back in history, he’s one of the people I would love to have had to dinner and a conversation with. Thank you for that, Ron.

“Little Caesar” is on YouTube. Gillian loves all the old clips, yes.

Oh, Rita, my brain is… “Casablanca,” 1942, yes. Many of the film noirs are shown on Friday nights on Turner Classic Movies. Yes, thank you, Claire.

“Casablanca,” 1942. I think it’s one of the… I still think it’s one of the great films. I must have seen it 20 times. And in fact, I’ve indoctrinated my grandchildren. At his Bar Mitzvah, my middle grandson, Jacob said, “Here’s looking at you kid.” Thank you. Anyway, bless you all. I hope if I… Oh, I am actually, yes, I am lecturing before the new year. I’m doing something on Yip Harburg.

But everyone have a safe weekend. I wish you a good Shabbat and keep safe in these dark times. God bless and thank you, Jess.