The Pawnbroker (1964)
Country: US
Technical: bw 114m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Rod Steiger, Brock Peters, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Synopsis:
A Jewish pawnbroker in New York shuns personal contact and is haunted by visions of his experiences in Auschwitz during the war; as a result he misses out on perhaps his only chance at redemption.
Review:
Intense character study, one of the first films to treat the open wound of the holocaust, albeit obliquely. It remains probably Steiger's best role and performance, and caused a stir at the time for its frank bare-breast scene (the black nude sustained, the white ones fleeting). Lumet directs with the raw immediacy of much of his early work (Fail Safe, The Hill) but occasionally tips into melodrama.
Country: US
Technical: bw 114m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Rod Steiger, Brock Peters, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Synopsis:
A Jewish pawnbroker in New York shuns personal contact and is haunted by visions of his experiences in Auschwitz during the war; as a result he misses out on perhaps his only chance at redemption.
Review:
Intense character study, one of the first films to treat the open wound of the holocaust, albeit obliquely. It remains probably Steiger's best role and performance, and caused a stir at the time for its frank bare-breast scene (the black nude sustained, the white ones fleeting). Lumet directs with the raw immediacy of much of his early work (Fail Safe, The Hill) but occasionally tips into melodrama.
Country: US
Technical: bw 114m
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Rod Steiger, Brock Peters, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Synopsis:
A Jewish pawnbroker in New York shuns personal contact and is haunted by visions of his experiences in Auschwitz during the war; as a result he misses out on perhaps his only chance at redemption.
Review:
Intense character study, one of the first films to treat the open wound of the holocaust, albeit obliquely. It remains probably Steiger's best role and performance, and caused a stir at the time for its frank bare-breast scene (the black nude sustained, the white ones fleeting). Lumet directs with the raw immediacy of much of his early work (Fail Safe, The Hill) but occasionally tips into melodrama.