Motel the Operator (1940)
Motl der Operator
Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.
- Date of release
- 1940-01-15
- TMDB
- 10.0 / 10 (1)
- Runtime
- 1h 28m
- Genres
- Drama
- Director
- Joseph Seiden
Casting
- Chaim Tauber — Motel Friedman
- Malvina Rappel — Esther Friedman
- Maurice Kroner — Benjamin Rosenwald
- Berthe Hart — Rebecca Rosenwald
- Seymour Rechtzeit — Jack Rosenwald
- Jacob Zanger — Jacob 'Joseph' Frumkin
- Yetta Zwerling — Chane Belle 'Annabella' Frumkin
- Gertrude Krause — Ruth Frumkin
- Herman Rosen — Doctor
- Izidor Frankel — Boss
- Seymour Rechzeit — Jacob 'Jack' Rosenwald
- Maurice Krohner — Benjamin Rosenwald
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