THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD (1934)

George Arliss, ‘distinguished’ actor from Early Talkie days, is much livelier than ere, moving from Warner Bros. to 20th Century Pictures to play founding father and favored son in this stiff bio-pic on the great Jewish Euro-banking family. From their start in Frankfort’s ghetto, to triumph in the Royal Courts of England, the five sons of Papa Rothschild fan across the continent to prosper, but only effect real social change when Heads of State need huge sums to fight Napoleon (again!) after his escape from Elba.* (Amounts truly mind-boggling from a single family - something like £100,000,000.) And just as London-based Nathan Rothschild saved Europe in war; so too does war save this film from Alfred Werker’s stolid direction & Nunnally Johnson’s by-the-numbers script, which flares to life in the third act. Loretta Young is on hand as a Rothschild daughter who pines for gentile British officer Robert Young and Boris Karloff makes a mark as anti-Semitic nemesis. But Arliss is pretty much the whole show, and just enough to hold interest. Still, for best results, down a shot of schnaps every time someone touches a mezuzah. Not before or since, has Hollywood seen so many mezuzahs.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: A bit of showmanship from studio head Darryl F. Zanuck celebrating the first year of 20th Century Pictures (before he took over/merged with Fox) with a final half-reel of early 3-strip TechniColor in crayon-bright hues. (M-G-M beat them to the punch by a couple of months with a more tastefully colored finale on an otherwise b&w THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE/’34.)

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *All-time favorite palindrome: ‘Able was I ere I saw Elba.’

LINK/DOUBLE-BILL: An AUDIO Double-Bill - Where this Rothschild drama only comes to life at the end, THE ROTHSCHILDS (Sheldon Harnick/Jerry Bock’s 1970 follow-up to their musical FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) works best in its first half. For BARNEY MILLER fans, here’s Hal Linden’s Tony Award-winning showstopper as Mayer (Papa) Rothschild: ‘Sons.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAelRDxxA5A