The Cantor's Son
Cast & Crew
Ilya Motyleff
Moishe Oysher
Florence Weiss
Michael Rosenberg
Judith Abarbanel
Isidore Cashier
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the Eastern European town of Belz, Shloimele, the young son of Cantor Zanvel, runs away from his family and friend Rivkele and joins a traveling company of Jewish actors after his father threatens to beat him for consorting with the group. The troupe, after traveling throughout Europe, goes to America, where Shloimele, in a New York ghetto, wishes he could return home. Fifteen years later, after Helen, a cabaret singer at the Roumanian Garden Café, gives the unemployed Shloimele a job as a floor washer, she hears him sing and then convinces the owner to give him a chance to sing with her on stage. Billed as Saul Reichman, Shloimele sings "My Little Town of Belz" in Yiddish and impresses Yiddish radio impresario W. H. Rossovitch, who signs him to sing on his program. Shloimele's success allows him to send money to his father to buy a new tallis , a prayer shawl, which pleases Zanvel greatly. When Shloimele sings the Hebrew prayer " Av Harachamin " over the radio, a group of men meeting to select a new cantor are greatly impressed as they listen, and they send their representative, Yussel Lufchick, to sign him. With Yussel as his manager, Shloimele tours the United States as a cantor before deciding to return to Belz for his parents' golden wedding anniversary. Helen, who now loves Shloimele, sings as he leaves. In Belz, Shloimele is reunited with his parents, friends and Rivkele, to whom he confesses that he cannot find his real self in America and that she has always been in his heart. They plan to marry, but the day before the wedding, Helen, to whom Shloimele has not written, arrives. After Shloimele explains that Rivkele was his first love, Helen tearfully hugs her and wishes her happiness. The next day as Shloimele prepares to marry Rivkele, he solemnly watches Helen's carriage depart.
Cast
Moishe Oysher
Florence Weiss
Michael Rosenberg
Judith Abarbanel
Isidore Cashier
Judah Bleich
Bertha Guttentag
Irving Honigman
Rose Wallerstein
Dan Makarenko
Vicky Marcus
Lorraine Abarbanel
Crew
Arthur Block
Louis Freiman
Jacob Jacobs
Julian Leigh
Alexander Olshanetsky
Alexander Olshanetsky
Dailey Paskman
Mark Schweid
Samuel M. Segal
Robert Van Rosen
Clarence Wall
Leonard Weiss
Frank Zucker
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The Yiddish title of this film was Dem Khazns Zundl. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item dated August 8, 1937, this film was planned as the first of six "Yiddish film operas" to be produced by Eron Pictures under the direction of Sidney M. Goldin. Goldin suffered a heart attack in Easton, PA, during the production period, and died on September 19, 1937. Goldin, whose film career began in the early 1910s, had been one of the leading directors and writers of films dealing with Jewish life, although he had not directed a film since his 1932 Uncle Moses. Goldin was replaced on The Cantor's Son by Russian stage director Ilya Motyleff, who before coming to the U.S. in 1934, had been an assistant to Konstantin Stanislavsky, then an associate director of the Moscow Art Theatre, and later a director in Luigi Pirandello's company in Italy and a Broadway director. According to modern sources, this was the only film that Motyleff directed.
This was singer Moishe Oysher's first film. Oysher, who was born in the Bessarabian town of Lipkon, emigrated to Canada when he was thirteen, and the following year began a singing and acting career. Oysher, who also was a cantor for various New York synagogues, was married to co-star Florence Weiss. All reviews list the actress playing "Malke" as Bertha Guttenberg, while screen credits list her as Bertha Guttentag.
