Trudy Gold
Representations of Jews in the Films of the Late 1950s and Early 1960s

Trudy Gold | Representations of Jews in the Films of the Late 1950s and Early 1960s | 02.29.24

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- Good evening, everyone from London, and today we continue with the image of the Jew on the silver screen. Now, I pose the question to you, does cinema reflect society? Does it lead society? Does it tell us about the various decades? And again, we’re back to the image of the fact that the majority of the moguls were, of course, Jewish, so many of the directors and producers were, and yet the whole issue of Jewishness had been very, very downplayed, and it’s fascinating, even though the moguls visited the camps, and newsreels were actually shown, and the Nuremberg war crimes trials received huge publicity, Hollywood for quite a long time ignores the Shoah. Rather than do separate sessions on the Shoah, what I’ve decided to do is to incorporate the gradual awareness in Hollywood as we go from decade to decade, and I’m also going to try and go a little slower because some of these films are so important.

So, today we are still with a few of the films of the forties. If you think about it out there in the real world, Lemkin, who’d lost most of his family in the Shoah, was actually at the United Nations trying to find a word to describe the indescribable, and, really, it’s not until 1958, ‘59, with “The Young Lions” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” that the word Jew is actually mentioned, but, even then, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which we probably will get to today, was de-judaized and it was sanitised, and I think this is one of the big problems that we face today in Holocaust education and Holocaust awareness. We have universalized the Holocaust. Now, let me be very careful. There are so many catastrophes, tragedies, which deserve attention, but to lump them all together, I think, is totally counterproductive.

But anyway, going back to the purpose of today, it wasn’t until 1947 that two films appear to discuss the issue of antisemitism, and they are “Crossfire” and “Gentleman’s Agreement.” They were released a few months apart, and, for the first time, the word Jew is actually mentioned. “Crossfire,” can we see the first slide if you don’t mind? There you see “Crossfire.” Its director was Edward Dmytryk and his producer Adrian Scott, they weren’t Jews, so they themselves said we couldn’t be told that we are doing it in self-interest, and “Crossfire” is a brilliant little film, by the way. It’s a message film, it’s very taut, it’s a low-budget picture, it’s a crime drama, it’s a film noir. One of the stars in it is the extraordinary Gloria Grahame, an incredibly sexy woman who is wonderful in film noir. But it stars the three Roberts, Robert Mitchum, Robert Young, and Robert Ryan, and Sam Levine has a supporting role. And what it does, it actually exposes the ugly grain of antisemitism in the American army. And it was nominated for best picture and best director, and it was a B picture, and this was a first for Hollywood.

In fact, they lost out on both because, in fact, they were both awarded to “Gentleman’s Agreement.” Ironically, the original story was about homosexuality in the army, but the Hays Code forbade it because you couldn’t mention homosexuality. At that stage by the Hays Code, and it seems almost appalling to have to tell you this. It was seen as a sexual perversion. So, ironically, you could change being persecuted and in the end killed for being a Jew, but you couldn’t yet make a film about someone being persecuted or killed for being a homosexual. Now, this is what Dmytryk said of the film, though, and the Hays Code, “The Code had a very good effect. "If you wanted to get something over that was censorable, "we had to do it deviously, "and it usually turned out much better "than if we’d done it straight.”

Now, a few months later, both Dmytryk and Scott, the producer and the director, were cited for contempt of Congress. They refused to testify and became part of the Hollywood 10, so please see this against the backdrop of HUAC, the fear of communism, the uncertainty of post-war America, and this is a film, it’s a message film, and at the end the Robert Young character gives a long speech about loving each other and how prejudice will destroy America. So, it was brave in its time, and if you can get to it, I really think it’s a very interesting film for you to look at. Now, the next film. Can we see the next slide, please? This is Edward Dmytryk, and, as I said, a director that’s going to pop up time and time again in my talks, and he’s a non-Jew, and remember, he is arrested and imprisoned as one of the Hollywood 10.

So, a man who fought for liberty, for freedom. Yes, he was very left wing, and I’m coming onto that as we go through the films. So now let’s have a look at “Gentleman’s Agreement.” Now, “Gentleman’s Agreement,” it was a big budget, very high-level star prestige film. It was based on Laura Z. Hobson’s bestselling book. Now Laura Z. Hobson was the daughter of a Yiddish writer and editor of “The Forward”, a man called Michael Zametkin, and she wrote this story about polite antisemitism. It’s going to be produced by the non-Jewish Darryl Zanuck and directed by another Gentile, the Greek director, Elia Kazan. So, in fact, we know from their memoirs that the moguls were very unhappy about this film, and they tried to get it stopped, and there is a scene in “Gentleman’s Agreement” which echoes that. And this is what the New York Times said about Elia Kazan, because, again, he was a director who would pick up issues that he believed to be of importance, and the New York Times said, “One of the most honoured and influential directors "in the history of Broadway and of Hollywood.” Can we see his face, please? Can you go on and show his face?

Yeah, that’s Elia Kazan. He’s, again, very similar background to many of the characters who were involved in these gritty films. He came from a poor background, being born in Istanbul, family came to America, he was of Greek descent. He joined Actors Studio in 1947, and he said, “I don’t do a movie unless I have some empathy "with the theme.” And “Gentleman’s Agreement” was his first such film. He went on in 1949 to make a film called “Pinky,” which was one of the first films, mainstream Hollywood films, about prejudice against African Americans. He also directed the incredibly gritty, superb films “Streetcar Named Desire” and “On The Waterfront,” both of which starred Marlon Brando, and, ironically, “Streetcar” was brought to the New York stage by Louis B. Mayer’s eldest daughter, Irene, who had been married to David Selznick, and they all know each other. It’s all this interlinked story of Hollywood and, of course, of Broadway.

He later on went on to make “East of Eden,” which introduced James Dean to the American public, and the project had been– it actually originated from Darryl Zanuck, who had previously, you will remember. can we see his face, please? No, sorry, go back up. I’ve left it out. Okay. Just wait a minute for this, Hannah, and then I’ll show you a clip from the film. He’d previously made “House of Rothschild” and Moss Hart, who, of course, was involved with Ben Hecht, a very important writer, and who’d been involved in that pageant to bring America’s attention to what was going on in Europe in 1944, he’d written the screenplay for that. He writes the screenplay for “Gentleman’s Agreement.” Kazan in his autobiography, he later admitted the film was too patronising, and he said, “So much, so much horrible history "as I recognised that the attack on the Jews, "it seems now almost inadequate for the issue.”

But the point was it’s had an impact. And the hero was a clever choice, was played by Gregory Peck. He’s very much the symbol of moral decency in America. He’s a journalist. He’s writing a feature for a magazine about antisemitism. He’s a widower with a son. He lives with his mother, who, again, is the righteous American, and his name is Phil Green, and he suddenly realises he’s not going to get it under the skin unless he pretends to be Jewish. So, Phil Green becomes Phil Greenberg in New York City and also he has a fiancee who is very much part of the Connecticut scene and Darien, and you remember the line, I think it was from “Auntie Mame,” “I am an Aryan from Darien.” So, he’s into that world, and the headline of his article is going to be, “I was Jewish for six months.”

The character of Phil Green is he’s shocked to discover that his very well-bred fiancee, who’s played by Dorothy McGuire, unconsciously also harbours a wisp of antisemitism, and posing as a Jew he also finds out he’s no longer welcome at an up-market resorts hotel where he goes because it’s the home of his future sister-in-law. He’s subjected to slander because he’s become a Jew. He’s threatened with eviction, his son is beaten up and called a dirty kike, so he has to go through the whole business of explaining antisemitism to his young son, and he realises that all the privileges of his life is because he is a WASP. He also discovers that his secretary, because he’s writing the story, so, of course, his secretary is typing it up, and he discovers that she is, in fact, secretly Jewish, but she’s very worried about the article because she’s very much an assimilationist, and she feels that she’s part of the Gentile world, and she’s worried that raising the level, making the public even more aware of antisemitism will lead to more “pushy Jews” come to the fore.

So he has a taste of Jewish self-hatred. He then turns to his close friend, who is played by the absolutely genius– He plays David Goldman, his Jewish buddy from the Army. He’s actually staying with Phil Green because he wants to find accommodations for himself and his wife in New York and he’s having trouble. He’s got a job in New York but nobody will let to Jews. So, his fiancee owns a vacant property, but it’s in a WASP area. She doesn’t want to offend her neighbours. So, as a result of that, he breaks the engagement. Now it’s the Jewish character, David Goldman, who speaks to her. He doesn’t want to get involved, but he speaks to her and explains why Phil is upset, and she sees the light. She agrees to let her cottage that she owns to Dave and his wife, and, therefore, the couple are with– they are reunited.

And there’s a wonderful character in it, played by the brilliant Sam Jaffe. He plays the Jewish professor in the film. He says, “I’m an atheist, but I remain a Jew "because antisemitism defines me as one.” So the point about antisemitism today and the film, “Gentleman’s Agreement,” I think today we would find it rather trite. I think we would find it, considering all the appalling events that are going on today, et cetera, I think we’d find it rather nonsensical. But in its day, it did have an important appeal. It was nominated for eight Oscars, it won three, and it was major box office. Now, can we go back and have a look at the clip? Can we have a look at the clip from “Gentleman’s Agreement?” This is the trailer.

[Clip plays]

• [Narrator] When Laura Z. Hobson’s great story, “Gentleman’s Agreement” first appeared serially in Cosmopolitan Magazine, its 20 million readers were startled at its daring. As a book, “Gentleman’s Agreement” still leads all best-seller lists month after month. No story of the last decade has hit the literary world with such terrific impact. The author has definitely treated a taboo topic to give it excitement, exhilaration, and entertainment. And now as a motion picture, “Gentleman’s Agreement” is accorded the highest honour a picture can be given. Here we see its producer, Darryl F. Zanuck, receiving the Academy Award for the Best Picture of the Year. To do the screenplay, Mr. Zanuck engaged Moss Hart, who wrote “Lady in the Dark,” “The Man Who came to Dinner,” and other great stage hits. For director, he chose Elia Kazan, whose talents now win the Academy Award for the Best Direction of the Year. In selecting the cast, the roles were filled with unusual care. The part of Phil Green, the fighting author, was given to Gregory Peck.

• Well, face me now, Miss Wales. Come on, look at me. Same face, same eyes, same nose, same suit, same everything. Here, take my hand. Feel it. Same flesh as yours, isn’t it? No different today than it was yesterday, Miss Wales.

• [Narrator] Dorothy McGuire was chosen to play the emotional, but confused, Kathy.

• I don’t have to kiss you in public, I’ve got a nice dark taxi outside.

• Well, what are we waiting for? Come on. Don’t just stand there.

• [Narrator] To play Dave, Phil’s understanding friend, the preference was John Garfield.

• I wonder if you’d feel so ill now, Kathy, if you hadn’t nailed him. You know, there’s a funny kind of elation about socking back. I learned that a long time ago. Phil’s learned it.

• [Narrator] The part of the forthright, pert, and frustrated Anne went to Celeste Holm, who in this role wins the Academy Award as the Best Supporting Actress of the Year. Then there’s Anne Revere as Phil’s understanding mother, June Havoc as Miss Wales, Phil’s secretary, Albert Dekker as the sympathetic publisher, Jane Wyatt as Kathy’s snobbish sister, Dean Stockwell as Tom, Phil’s young son.

• Don’t shout at me. I know what you’re thinking about marrying me. I saw it on your face when I said that to Tom. And don’t treat me to any more lessons of tolerance. I’m sick of it. I’m not going to marry into hot-head shouting and nerves and you might as well know it.

[Clip ends]

• Thank you. Can we go on please? Can we go on to John Garfield? Yes. Because I must say a few words about him, because he was an extraordinary actor. He died very young. He was one of Warner Brothers stars. He came from Eastern Europe. He found his niche in the Yiddish theatre. His father, in fact, was a part-time cantor. His mother had died young. He had a very tough, hard upbringing. And when he finally makes it to Hollywood, he becomes one of the stars of Warner Brothers. He couldn’t join the army because he had a heart condition, so he very much supported the war effort, and he and Bette Davis were the driving force behind the opening of the Hollywood Canteen, which I’ve referred to before. It’s when Hollywood stars, they opened up this incredible canteen where they themselves would serve the men who were on leave from the American army.

And after the war, he is a very, very successful actor. He is in “The Postman Always Rings Twice” with Lana Turner. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a classic. “Humoresque” with Joan Crawford. He plays a musician and she’s the older woman. Again, it’s another classic. And then “Gentleman’s Agreement.” He only had a supporting part in it, but he took it because he was fascinated by the exposure of antisemitism. He was very much a Jew. He unfortunately got caught up in McCarthyism. He was very left wing, but he was not a communist. He was called to testify, he refused to name names. His wife, in fact, Roberta Seidman, was a member of the Communist Party, and, in fact, he died when he was 39 years old. He and his wife split up over politics and aggravated because he would box a lot and he would do a lot of sports, and the tension of HUAC led to a massive heart attack.

He died age 39. It was the largest funeral in New York City since that of Rudolph Valentino. He was really one of the greats. So, John Garfield, who took the part, a quite minor role, because he wanted a film that exposed antisemitism. So just to recap on the two of them, they brought it to the screen, they played with the word Jew, they were both message pictures, they did well at the time, but practically everybody who was in it or was involved in the production of it later said it was far too sanitised. And today, when you look back on it, it’s an interesting period piece. Again, I would add it to your list of films to see. And now I’m coming on to another film. Can we see the poster please? And this one you will not be able to see. It is a fascinating little addendum to film history.

It was the first American film to deal with the '47, '48 war in Mandatory Palestine. And it’s the story of a freight– a man called Mike Dillon, who’s played by Dana Andrews. He’s smuggling Jews into Palestine for money, and he makes it clear to the leader of the Haganah, who he’s dealing with, that he’s only doing it for the money. So, he’s running his Jews into Palestine when a British patrol boat arrives to capture the boat, and Dillon is therefore forced to join the fight for Jewish freedom. There are casualties on both sides before the refugees get away. Now, it was incredibly controversial because it was incredibly anti-British. It was written by a man called Robert Buckner. He was a very important Hollywood writer, and he produced it. He got the idea after visiting Palestine in 1944.

He was very much a Zionist. And this is the response from the New York Times. “Makes a generally exciting thriller. "In all the major encounters, the Jews emerged triumphant "at the soldiers’ humiliating expense "with the former appearing as heroes "and the latter as stiff-backed British cads.” And it goes on to say, “Significantly, the Arab peoples "are almost completely overlooked, "and the factions within the Jewish forces are not even hinted at.” That’s Bosley Crowther in a review of 1949. So, it’s a paean to the freedom fighters of Israel, and parallels, of course, are made with the freedom fighters of Israel fighting against the British with the founding fathers of America fighting against the British.

Now, it didn’t go down well in Britain. The Evening Standard actually wrote, “The film is not for the eyes of Britains.” There were demonstrations outside the opening of the film in Piccadilly and pamphlets supporting Oswald Mosley. Oswald Mosley, who before the war had created the Union of British Fascists, a very deeply flawed man who I’ve spoken about. You can find the episode on “Lockdown” and his relationship, and later marriage, with Diana Mitford. But he reforms the fascists after the war, particularly because of the problems in Palestine, and his men are at the film demonstrating. Now, the cinema received a bomb threat, and five days later, this is very interesting because here you’ve got a parallel with events going on at the moment, the London County Council, following the advice of the home office, prohibited public showing of the film, I’m quoting, “To prevent further clashes.”

The National Council of Civil Liberties protested. Now, isn’t it interesting because, again, you have demonstrations in London, this time over the Palestinians. How should it be dealt with, the right to protest? When does the right to protest in this case lead to incitement to racial hatred? And this was an issue that had to be faced over this particular film back in 1950 when it came out in England. And don’t forget also the British were very sore about the mandate. When the partition vote had gone before the UN in November of ‘47, the British abstained, and they said it would take us six months to get out of Palestine and basically we’re going to watch our backs. And with an army in Palestine, they still allowed the two peoples to fight it out. Now, it was screened in Australia after certain cuts were made, but it wasn’t shown in Tasmania, so it’s an interesting little aside. Can we see the next slide, please?

It was made by George Sherman. He was a B director. He directed mainly cowboy movies. So three films, three extra films of the forties, and now we finally turn to the fifties, and we’re going to see more and more films dealing with different Jewish themes, but it’s not really going to erupt until the sixties. So depending on how far we go today, we’ll be looking mainly at films of the fifties, maybe with a little time to begin the sixties, because when we get to the sixties, there are so many different themes to explore. For example, the whole issue of Nazism with “Judgement at Nuremberg,” “Ship of Fools,” and, of course, the brilliant “Pawnbroker.” “Exodus” we’ve dealt with. “Cast a Giant Shadow,” “Judith,” another film, but also the rather interesting “Marjorie Morningstar” about Jewish female identity, “Anne Frank,” so, basically, what is this about?

The day of the moguls is over. You have a different kind of people in Hollywood and also the end of HUAC, the emergence of the Kennedy era and all that that entailed, and it’s going to be reflected in the cinema. Remember what I said right at the beginning? And you will all make up your own minds about it. Why do you go to the cinema? Do you go to escape? Do you go to be entertained? Do you go to be challenged? What impact did it have on your lives? Now remember, this is before wholesale television. And by the late fifties, early sixties, they’re going to have to compete with television, and, ironically, some of the best directors of the sixties movies come from television.

But at this stage, something like 50 million Americans went to the movies every week, and if you didn’t go at least once a week, you weren’t a moviegoer. It was entertainment. Think about it, the big picture, the B picture, the newsreels, the cartoons. I can remember as a kid, and I can also remember how we stood up for the Queen in England and why that stopped. So basically it was very much the entertainment of America and this is the irony. Hollywood had huge power because it influenced people’s lives. Last time I gave you the silly example of Clark Gable’s vestlessness, vest off. But in so many ways it influenced women’s fashions far more than Hollywood. It influenced women’s hairstyles, it influenced men’s clothing. What is it to be called? Later on, of course, you’re going to see the actors straight out of Actors Studio, people like Marlon Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman, a different kind of actor.

So important to remember the power of Hollywood. But ironically, the fact that Jewish Hollywood, certainly up until this stage, would not use its influence on Jewish matters because they so desperately wanted to be American. And if I’d been giving this course 30 years ago, I would’ve said that to an extent that whole issue could be resolved. In the light of what’s been happening over the past few months, particularly since the horror of October 7th, I would say it is still wide open. What does it mean to be a Jew in the diaspora, and what is our affinity to that nation at the end of the Mediterranean? Because I know on our site we have Israelis, we have Americans, we have Brits, we have South Africans, we have Canadians, and many others. And also we have many non-Jews listening. What links us, a shared interest? Anyway, let’s go on to a very fascinating little film called “The Juggler.”

Now, this is the first American film that was made in Israel, and it’s the first film to actually conflate Holocaust atrocities and the promise of Jewish healing in the newly-formed state of Israel, and it’s also, as I said, it was very important to Israel in 1953 because Israel, think about it, this tiny little country trying to absorb immigrants, the Holocaust survivors, tragically having to absorb so many immigrants from the Arab world whose lives have become completely unbearable, the forgotten refugees that Lyn Julius talks about, thank goodness, on our channel, but basically this is the first film to confront it. And this is the New York Times, again Bosley Crowther, “Through the concept and the performance of Mr. Douglas, "who gives a strong and compelling sense of character "and human pathos comes through.”

And Variety says, “It’s presented without undue race and religious emphasis, "so the entertainment is non-sectarian.” Which I think is a fascinating analysis. It’s the story of a survivor in Palestine. He’s got incredibly difficult psychological problems as so many survivors had. He had what today we would call survivor guilt, and it’s about that his path in Israel and his relationships with people and how in the end he is going to be looked after and redeemed, and it’s produced by Stanley Kramer for Columbia. It was part of a $25 million deal that he’d made with them to produce 30 films for them. Again, it’s directed by Edward Dmytryk, who also directed “Crossfire,” so an interesting little film, not a huge success, very difficult to get hold of, but nevertheless, I think in the history of the awareness of the Shoah and the establishment of the state of Israel, it’s very interesting and, of course, it predates “Exodus,” “Cast a Giant Shadow,” et cetera. And I think now, can we see the next slide, please?

I want to talk about Kirk Douglas because he fascinates me and he lived to be 104. Now I’m sure, because he’s going to come up again and again in some of the films we’re going to be looking at. He was born, as I’m sure you all know, and let me make sure I pronounce it correctly because I am not very good at pronunciations. I think it’s because my doctor says I’m dyspraxic, but we’re not going down that again. Can we go back please to– Yeah. He was born Issur Danielovitch in New York. His parents came from Mogilev, which is in Belarus today. I’ve been to Belarus many times, we’ve taught a lot over there, and, ironically, we used to teach the citizens of Belarus about the Shoah. Ah, what a world. And, believe me, it is primitive today outside of the cities. I can just imagine what it was like when his family left.

The family spoke Yiddish at home. There were seven children, he was the only son, and it was later in life he’s involved in a horrible helicopter crash, and at 74 he’s going to find his Jewish heritage. He grew up as Izzy Demsky, and later on, when he entered the Navy, he changed his name to Kirk Douglas. In 1988, he wrote an autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son,” and this is what he wrote. “My father had been a horse trader in Russia. "He got himself a horse and a small waggon "and became a ragman, the lowest rung on the ladder, "and I was the ragman’s son.” He came from a very sad family. Tragically, his father was an alcoholic and they endured the most appalling poverty. He adored his mother, and later on he’s going to name production company for her.

He was always attracted to the theatre for the escapism of it, and he managed to work his way through college, he went to Brooklyn College, by working as a gardener and as a janitor to pay the fees. He becomes a great wrestler. He also stars in university productions and then he wins a special scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Art, where his classmate was Betty Joan Perske, better known to you as Mrs. Bogart, or, of course, Lauren Bacall, and she would later play a very important role in launching his career. She was eight years younger than him, and she wrote in her autobiography they were friends. I think she had a romantic interest in him but it wasn’t reciprocated.

So he returns to New York City after the Navy. He works in radio commercials, soap operas. He’s very good looking. He wanted a stage career. But Lauren Bacall actually recommended him to Hal Wallis, the Power of Stars, because she, of course, had been absolutely catapulted to stardom and starring with her future husband, of course, Humphrey Bogart. Look out for their early films. They are absolutely phenomenal. And in 1946, he gets a part as the second lead with Barbara Stanwyck in “The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers.” I really recommend that film. You know, I know I love overblown film noir. I’ve mentioned to you, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, and, of course, Joan Crawford. I just love their films.

It’s good when the world out there is very dark, settle yourself down with your favourite drink, be it tea, coffee, or alcohol, and wallow in some of these films. And his next film, 1947, “Out of the Past” with Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer, where she plays one of the most evil characters of film noir. Brilliant. He then makes his Broadway debut in “Three Sisters,” and then “I Walk Alone” with Burt Lancaster. The two are going to work together in seven films, and the dynamism between Lancaster and Douglas is absolutely extraordinary. And in 1949, he’s in “The Champions” where he plays a boxer, and it’s Stanley Kramer again, I’m coming onto him later, and he won his first Oscar nomination.

He broke his studio contracts and formed his own company, Bryna Productions, and he named it for his mother. In his extraordinary career, you’re talking about 87 films, 75 features, 14 television starring roles, three nominations for the Oscars, Lifetime Achievement Award, and Presidential Medal of Honour. He’s written 11 books, including a Holocaust-themed novel. And when he was young, although he was bar mitzvah’d, remember, he’s the only son, he showed little interest in practise, but he said, “I always fasted on Yom Kippur,” and very funny, he said, “I still worked on the movies on the set, but I fasted, "and, believe me, it’s not easy to make love "to Lana Turner on an empty stomach.” But as I said, after his plane crash when he was 74, he became involved in the study of Torah. And when he was 83, he had his second bar mitzvah, and he said, “Today I am a man.”

In fact, his second wife converted to Judaism, and she said, “Kirk had married two shiksas, "and it’s about time he married a nice Jewish girl.” And in the fifties and sixties, he was very much one of Hollywood’s top stars. He made one of my favourite movies, “The Bad and the Beautiful.” Now that he co-starred with Lana Turner, that’s when he makes that comment. Also, “Lust for Life,” the story of Van Gogh, very clever film, and then, of course, “The Juggler,” which is important because as I reiterate, it was the first film to be shot in Israel. And in the sixties, we’re going to see “Spartacus,” and he used Dalton Trumbo, who had, of course, been blacklisted, and it was important because he used him with his real name, and that and Otto Preminger using Trumbo in “Exodus,” really it’s the death knell of HUAC. He had that power. He was a huge philanthropist in both in Israel and in America. In fact, he opened a theatre, paid for the theatre in Jerusalem showing films on Jewish history and Judaism.

Now, some of his best movies come through Bryna Productions, “Paths of Glory,” “Spartacus,” I hope you’ve got a pen, “Seven Days in May.” Brilliant. He said this, “I took my mother in a limousine "to Times Square and stopped before a broad billboard,” and he said to her, “See Ma, see Ma, "Bryna presents "The Vikings.” And Mother said. “In America, such a wonderful land,” because, of course, he’s filmed “The Vikings,” that you either love it or not, but it stars those two vikings, Issur Danielovitch and Bernie Schwartz, better known as Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. Now, just to go through some of his other films, if you’ve still got pens with you, “Lonely Are the Brave,” “Letter to Three Wives.” Brilliant. “The Glass Menagerie,” “Ace in the Hole,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “Gunfight at the OK Corral.” I don’t like Westerns much but I love that film. “Devil’s Disciple,” “Strangers When We Meet,” “Town Without Pity,” “Two Weeks in Another Town,” and I can go on. Of course, “Cast a Giant Shadow,” what I’m going to talk about later. “Is Paris Burning,” again, “Victory at Entebbe.”

You know, they were the halcyon days when Israel was loved, and the joke going around America after the Entebbe raid was that– Remember the hostages situation in Iran, and the joke went around Israel that the Americans had asked the Israelis to do it, but they wanted too much, they wanted 10% of the film rights because three films came out, the first one six weeks after Entebbe glorifying, and it was an incredible operation, let’s remember that, and he was in that. And then “Remembrance of Love,” which is about survivors in Hollywood. He makes lots of tough guy films with Burt Lancaster. And another great film is a remake of “Inherit the Wind.” There are two versions, one with Spencer Tracy and the other one with Kirk Douglas. And it’s, of course, about the Scopes trial and whether you can actually teach evolution in the Southern states because it’s against the biblical notion of the creation story.

So he’s an incredible character. So, as I said, he’s someone that he’s going to pop up time and time again. Have a look at his autobiography. He’s larger than life, and, of course, his son, Michael Douglas, has very much come out as a Jew, so what can I tell you? Destiny, destiny, and Jewish identity. Can we move on to the next film, please? “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Now, this is a problem film for me and for many other historians of the Holocaust. It’s George Stevens. It’s based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play. It won three Academy Awards. Shelley Winters, that very interesting Jewish actress, actually donated her award, she won Best Supporting Actress, to the Anne Frank Museum. Otto Frank is played by Joseph Shildkraut, whose family had been murdered in the Shoah. You will remember him from “The Life of Emile Dreyfus.”

It was directed by George Stevens, who later on directed the wonderful “A Place in the Sun” with Liz Taylor and Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters, and won the Academy Award for “Giant.” Remember “Giant” with James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson? And also he’s nominated for “Diary of Anne Frank.” Now, let’s talk about it. It’s the first film to directly confront the Holocaust. Now, I’m quoting from a film historian now, and I’ll come onto her in a minute. “Gentle, refined, incongruously hopeful movie "that universalized the Shoah.” Now the story. Anne Frank, as I’m sure you all know, because she is the most famous victim, tragically, of one and a half million children.

She spent two years in hiding in Amsterdam before being discovered and was sent finally and was sent to Birkenau, and then on the death march where she was in Bergen-Belsen, and actually she died two months before liberation, one of the 1.5 million children to die in the Shoah. Her diary was recovered by her father Otto after the war, and it was published in 1952. It’s now translated into 55 different languages, and then it was also transformed into a Pulitzer-winning play in 1956. Now, the film director, George Stevens, had been part of the– he was actually head of the Army film unit and at the liberation of Dachau. And, as I said, Joseph Shildkraut had lost his family in the war and he had played Otto Frank on the stage.

It was a black and white movie, and the film ends back in the attic after the war with Anne’s voiceover repeating her early proclamation that people are really good at heart. Now, the problem with the film, it sanitises the Shoah. The screenplay emphasises her belief in mankind, and also deletes the fact that her sister was an ardent Zionist. Instead, she’s portrayed almost as a saintly character. And the film does avoid the mention of the annihilation of the Jewish people and the deep-seated Jew hatred, which actually fueled was I think still the major reason behind the Shoah. Let me give you some examples of the de-judaization. What happened in 1997, the playwright, Wendy Kesselman, presented a newly-adapted version based on the definitive version, which had restored passages deleted by Otto Frank.

Otto Frank had wanted to present his family as the perfect family so the more difficult passages were cut out, and the '59 film further de-judaized Anne’s story. In the film, she says, “We are not the only people that had to suffer. "Sometimes one race, sometimes another.” The line as Anne wrote it, “We are not the only Jews who have had to suffer. "Right down through the ages there have been Jews "and they’ve had to suffer.” So, sanitised? A problem. And unfortunately, I’m going to say this, it’s my opinion, it’s very much filtered through to the Anne Frank Organisation. They do wonderful work, but in my view they have de-judaized, and this is the problem we are facing today. I think people do feel sorry for victims, but they don’t know about the Jewishness, and unless we resurrect that, we’re not going to make any inroads whatsoever. That’s my view and it would be lovely if at some stage we could actually have a debate on it.

I know it’s the view that’s shared by many of my friends who are survivors, who have given so much, and they’re saying, “Yes, we know that people listen to us, "but on the other hand, who do they think we are "except rather sad old people? "They don’t know the world we come from.” Now, I think we’ve got time for one more film and that, of course, is “The Young Lions.” There you see George Stevens, who, of course, won an Oscar for the film. And remember, he had been part of the liberation of Dachau. And I want to say this because I’ll be getting onto it in my next session. I’m going to talk about “The Producers,” Mel Brooks, because films, more and more different kinds of films, and when you’re dealing with Mel Brooks, I know a lot of people find him terribly difficult to take, but never forget, he was part of the army of liberation and he saw the camps and he above all else was a Jew, and he decided to use his iconoclastic and his bad-taste humour to shock.

Now, how you deal with catastrophe and how you deal with the Shoah– I was sent, by the way, from one of our students an absolutely remarkable PhD thesis, so I’m publicly thanking you for that. I read it from cover to cover. So let’s go on and have a look at one more film, and this is “The Young Lions.” What a cast! Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, directed again by Edward Dmytryk, who I’ve talked about, and written by Irwin Shaw. Can we go on please 'cause I want to talk a bit about Irwin Shaw, another interesting man, born in 1913, lived till 1984, born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the Bronx. His family were immigrants from Eastern Europe. His brother also became a Hollywood producer. His family moved to Brooklyn. He went to Brooklyn College. He got a BA and changed his name.

He began his screenwriting career in 1935. He married the daughter of a silent film actor called Snitz Edwards, who’d been born Edward Neumann in Budapest, and she was also a producer and actress, so he comes very much from a Jewish milieu. He marries into the Jewish world. He’s absorbed in the Jewish world. He joined the regular army and was also reassigned to George Stevens’s film unit, so he’s close to George Stevens. And by the way, so the films they make, remember the films they make, he knew exactly what went on. Now, he started after the war. He starts his career writing for radio shows, Dick Tracy. He later wrote about this in a book. He wrote “The Main Currents of American Thought.” He talks about being a hack writer who ground out scripts paid for the word, and he said, “How many words would it take for me "to buy my mother a dining table?”

And in 1936, he becomes associated with the group theatre. How often do they come up? In the summer. They used to meet in the summer in Connecticut. Who was there? Elia Kazan, John Garfield, Clifford Odets, Lee J. Cobb, a lot of people. It’s a kind, almost a coterie of characters who all feel the same way and they’re going to be working in each other’s films. Many of them, of course, suffer as a result of HUAC. He is blacked. “The Young Lions” was his first novel, his first novel of 1948, and what he wanted to show was how deep Jew hatred was. He was unhappy with the film, “The Young Lions,” because he felt it hadn’t been dealt with properly. He was blacklisted. Through HUAC, he left for Europe and lived there for 25 years.

He wrote several screenplays and books, many of them, “Two weeks in Another Town,” you must know “Rich Man, Poor Man,” which became a miniseries in the seventies, in the seventies and eighties. How did so many of these writers and producers and directors survive? They got involved in the great miniseries. There’s at least a dozen of them that if you could get hold of, you should watch. In 1950, he wrote a book on Israel, “Report on Israel,” And the photos in that were by Robert Capa, who, of course, was one of the greatest combat and adventure photographers, who tragically was killed in Vietnam in a land mine. So Irwin Shaw, a very, very serious character, who didn’t like the film he had written. He didn’t like the way the filmmakers adapted his script. He thought they had really, I don’t know, dumbed down the themes that he wanted to get out. So what is the theme of the film?

I’m not saying these films aren’t worth seeing, but it’s important that you know this is still the sanitization. So, in it, Brando plays a German called Christian Diestl. He thinks in the beginning that Hitler’s going to be good for Germany because he’s going to bring prosperity. And another character is the Dean Martin character, who’s a successful businessman, he’s very famous. The third character is played by the extraordinary Montgomery Clift. He plays Noah, a young Jew who has experienced antisemitism at home, and, of course, when he is going to discover the camps, it is going to have a huge impact on him.

Now, some of the most important scenes, so the Nazi played by Marlon Brando, he’s joined, I should be careful, he’s joined the German army, he has joined the Nazi Party because he thinks Hitler is the right thing, but then he comes across a concentration camp, and, of course, all the facts are wrong about this, but it doesn’t matter because when he discovers the camp, he’s horrified, he runs away. Anyway, then it switches to the scenes on the liberation of the camp and the mayor of the local town offers to help clear it up, but he’s rebuffed by the American captain who has discovered the camp, and he’s got Noah with him, and he’s also got the Dean Martin character with him, because an imprisoned rabbi comes up to him asking for permission to hold a religious service.

They are so horrified by what they’ve seen, they rebuff the offers from the Germans from the nearby towns. And seeing how Noah has been affected by it, the captain tells him and his friend Michael, Dean Martin character, to go for a walk. Christian, meanwhile, has been so enraged by what happened at the camp, he’d had a conversation with the commandant and he’s explained why he’d gone in for all the murders. He breaks his machine gun. The noise attracts Michael and Noah, Michael shoots him, and the two of them walk back to the camp. The end of the film, Noah returns back to America and his lovely girlfriend, who becomes his wife, played by Hope Lange, and his baby, and that’s how the film ends. It’s a great box office hit. It restores Dean Martin’s career after he split with Jerry Lewis. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, and it was huge box office. So what can I tell you? The films I’m showing you from the fifties that are dealing with important Jewish themes are sanitised. If you want to watch them, watch them for the sake of the history of Jews in film.

As we come into the sixties, we’re going to see the next batch of films that I’ll be showing you. I’m afraid all the descriptions are going to be wrong because I’m going to have to be talking now about “Marjorie Morningstar” and then we will move on to “Judgement at Nuremberg,” “The Pawnbroker,” and “Ship of Fools.” Two of them are Stanley Kramer and written by the wonderful Abby Mann, who also wrote “Kojak,” by the way, which is still one of my favourite television programmes. I still think that “Judgement ” and “The Pawnbroker” are two of the greatest films ever made. So, I hope I can do them justice. And thank you as ever, Hannah, for helping me. Let’s have a look at questions.

Q&A and Comments

Oh, Veronica says she watched “The House of Rothschild.” It’s dated but interesting. Oh, this is why I love lockdown. From Arlene. John Garfield was a cousin, my father’s cousin-in-law, and, of course, he died in a heart attack, but the problem, how much was it actually brought on by what happened with HUAC and his wife spitting up from him because although he refused to name names, he did rubbish communism and she was a member of the Communist Party. So many Jews were attracted to left wing movements. What else was there when you’re fighting Hitler?

This is from Milena, Milena Grenfell, I’ve got to mention it because I’m interviewing her at Book Week this week. And, of course, Milena was one of the children who came out with Nicholas Winton. So Milena, John Garfield, I remember him well. He was a great favourite. Yes, wasn’t he wonderful? Kazan’s films were wonderful but he did name names. It’s, yeah. I mean it’s so difficult to pass judgement unless you walk in their shoes, don’t you? He was forgiven. Why wouldn’t we be able to see “Sword in the Desert?” Because I’ve never been able to find a copy. Look, it was banned in Britain. If you can, it would be wonderful. It would be wonderful if someone could. Wait a minute. I have seen extracts from it actually. Jack Hawkins is in it. Look, perhaps you could go on a mystery tour and see if you can find it. Julian. Oh, wait a minute.

Julian’s telling us “Sword in the Desert” is available. It’s a bad film by the way. It’s not a good film, but it’s worth watching because it’s history. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. No investigation to be done. Rita’s come up with it. So has Julian. I don’t know if we can get it in England. It’s available on MBDB. Jeremy says in “The Pawnbroker,” the Nazerman speech. I will be showing that speech next session. There are certain scenes in films, and I’m going to mention them now, including the speech when Nazerman, brilliantly played by Rod Steiger, talks to his Puerto Rican employee, who asked him, “What is the secret of you people?” And also the scene in “Cabaret,” “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” and in “Chariots of Fire” there are certain sequences that I used to use when I was teaching at university because you could actually encapsulate so much if it’s done brilliantly, visually perfect.

Oh, “The Juggler” is free, Rita? Oh, well. Olive is saying in Durban, South Africa, about 60 years ago, also used to stand after movies for the anthem, which was at the time “God Save the Queen.” It’s interesting because evidently the Granada Cinema was controlled by the Bernstein family, who are a Jewish family. Their main claim to fame was “Coronation Street,” which is the longest running soap in Britain. And, interestingly enough, I was very close to a man called Clive Marks, he was the chairman of the London Jewish Cultural Centre, one of the most wonderful men. Tragically, he died a few months ago. But he told me that the reason his uncles banned it, not banned it, they stopped the singing of the Queen. People were walking out and they didn’t want the disrespect. So that’s how it stopped. Yes. Alice is saying Kirk Douglas’s autobiography is beautifully written and is a very moving account of his life. Yes, a fascinating man. The “Diary of Anne Frank” is also available.

Q: Monique asked, “Do you not think sanitising is what Hollywood does best?” A: That’s a very important question, and I’m not going to give a glib answer. Other people should think about it. We should bring it up at the next session. Sanitising. I’ve got to think. That’s a hugely important question.

“Diary of Anne Frank” has been banned in some schools in South and the Midwest. I’d love to know the reason. Is it because it’s too Jewish or not Jewish enough? This is from David. I remember watching “Gentleman’s Agreement” as a young boy at a Jewish camp. I was amazed that there was a movie with a Jewish theme. I guess that is how other minorities feel today. Thank you. What about “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer?” One of the first films made in Israel, with Haya Harareet, and “The Search” with Montgomery Clift, not specifically Jewish, but an amazing ending when the children leave him. Rosemary, I’ve had to make choices. Haya Harareet, of course, starred as Moses’s wife, didn’t she? No, it was Ben Hur’s love interest. Wasn’t she was Miss Israel.

Q: Michael Block wants to know why Jews are hated? A: Read the portion Balak in “Exodus.” The Gentile prophet Balaam says the Lord’s words. It’s a nation that sits alone and will not be counted amongst the nations. The Torah doesn’t lie. That, of course, is a lot of food for thought, isn’t it, Michael? What’s that trite example? I know we’re chosen, but next time, God please choose someone else. Who said that, Michael? Who said that first? “The Pawnbroker.”

Yes, Linda. Rod Steiger explains Judaism. He actually explains antisemitism, and, as I said, we will look at it next week. Mormons have converted Anne Frank to their religion posthumously, the ultimate de-judification. You know, it’s very complicated, isn’t it, Howard? They collect names of survivors because they can save their souls by converting them. I personally find that very troubling. I don’t know what other people think.

This is from Claire. My parents were hidden during the whole war in Amsterdam. The whole rest of their families were deported and murdered in the camps. My mother always had an issue with the Anne Frank diary and popularity and that part of being in hiding was not to mention names or even write a diary. When found, the Germans would not only deport the family in hiding, but also round up and deport all possibly named righteous non-Jews. And as an aside, I totally agree with your take on Anne Frank popularity in the current museum in Amsterdam, which seems to have lost its way. Thank you for your frankness.

Yeah. This is someone I think is Israeli, but a Hebrew, not giving a name though. It annoys me to see huge queues at the Anne Frank Museum making money out of this poor girl. Ah, this is interesting. An incentive to go to movies in New York City was that Wednesday evenings were free dish nights. Ah, thank you. Oh, Myrna tells us Anne Frank is banned because it might upset the delicate children. No books of consequence allowed. “The world is mad,” says Myrna. Ah, wow. What can we say? The world is upside down at the moment.

Rita. Did I ever see a rather charming film about a Russian band that came to Israel? Forgotten the title. Can anyone help? Ah, this is from Stewart. I believe “The Diary of Anne Frank” was banned in some southern US states due to her comments on her sexual feelings. Ha ha. This is Dara Horn, the brilliant Dara Horn. Everyone loves dead Jews, remember? Huh? She points out that Anne Frank believes people are good before she’s murdered. Yeah. She died of typhus, didn’t she, in the camps two months before the liberation. Oy.

Anyway, so next week on Tuesday, I’m going to start with “Marjorie Morningstar,” which is a totally different kind of film. It’s really about the coming of age story of a young Jewish girl, her trials as a Jewish woman, and how she accommodates, and you have the famous Seder scene in it. So I hope I’ll see you all next week. And actually at seven o'clock, my daughter Tanya is giving a presentation on one of her heroines, Judy Garland.

So I wish you all good evening. Hannah, as ever, thank you so much for keeping me sane. God bless everyone.