Motel the Operator

In New York's Lower East Side, Motel Friedman works twelve hours a day sewing in a sweatshop. He has gained the nickname "Motel the Operator" because of the machine he operates. After Motel and other workers, including Yosel, a presser, go on strike, Motel's wife Esther cannot pay the doctor for her ill son Jackie's medicine or buy needed food for the boy. To get rid of the strikers, the boss hires a gangster, who hits Motel over the head as he pickets. Motel is taken to Bellevue Hospital, where the doctor reports that his head is fractured and that he will never be the same if he lives. When Esther is threatened with eviction, Yosel's wife Chane talks to William H. Benson, the head of an adoption agency, about Jackie. Wealthy Benjamin Rosenwald comes to the agency offering $500 to the parents and $1,000 to the agency to secretly adopt a poor child. Although Esther rebukes Benson when he tells her that wealthy, decent people want to adopt Jackie, when the doctor warns that the child is starving, she signs Jackie away. Benson only gives her $50. Esther then turns on the gas in her apartment and asphyxiates herself. Three years later, Motel leaves the hospital to go home, but he finds that his apartment building has been demolished. Motel wanders twenty years, from 1920 until 1940, and becomes a bearded flower seller. Meanwhile, at the Rosenwald home, Jack has become a full-fledged lawyer. He is engaged to marry Ruth, the daughter of Yosel and Chane, who, now that Yosel is a successful pants manufacturer, call themselves Josef and Annabella. As a wedding gift, Rosenwald gives Jack a lease on a Fifth Avenue office and a chance to become his partner in business. Because Benson has lost money in Wall Street and needs $5,000, he tries to blackmail Rosenwald by threatening to tell Jack that Rosenwald is not his real father. Rosenwald refuses and Benson vows to find Jack's father. Seeing Motel selling flowers, Benson offers him money to impersonate Motel the Operator. When he hears this, Motel faints. Benson introduces Motel to the Rosenwald family as an old friend, and Motel again faints when he meets Jack. When Motel is alone with Benson and Rosenwald, Benson claims that Motel is Jack's real father. Rosenwald gets a gun, which Motel takes away, then offers money if they'll go away. Seeing that the Rosenwalds are a good family, Motel threatens to kill Benson if he doesn't leave, and in a struggle for the gun, Benson is shot and killed. Feeling that it is his duty to defend the unfortunate, Jack takes Motel's case. After Motel ascertains that Jack loves his "parents," Motel says that Benson promised him money to say that he was Jack's real father. Motel then converses with a vision of Esther, who tries to convince him that he has a right to his son and to happiness, but Motel says that it is too late and that he will soon be with her. After Jack appeals to the humane feelings of the jury and proports the idea that Motel was a messenger from God sent to execute a judgment on Benson, the jury brings in a not guilty verdict. Following the wedding, Yosel recognizes Motel, who does not want anyone to know his real identity. Motel tells Rosenwald that he will keep quiet and only asks that he be allowed to visit sometimes. Rosenwald, however, insists that Motel remain with them always.