SKU 3387
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THE LIVING ORPHAN (1939) * with hard-encoded English subtitles *

Joseph Seiden, Sholom Secunda, Joseph Seiden, Fania Rubina, Gustav Berger, Jerry Rosenberg
$13.99

The endless trauma and hardship, which plagued early 20th Century immigrants to the United States, is highlighted in this film:  alcoholism, separation anxiety and oppressive poverty.  In this film, the immigrants in question are a theatrical couple, whose marriage is tested by the demands of the stage.  The husband, whose career is failing, insists the wife stay home and look after their young son.  The wife, on the other hand, faces the dilemma of choosing career over the family.  The film is set in New York in the 1930s and contains street shots of the Lower East Side that have long since slipped into history.  The struggle between early 20th Century High Capitalism and the unwelcome, perceived socialist/communist attitude on the part of poor Jews could be detected in one scene, which the Ohio Censorship Board demanded be eliminated from the film:  A scene where Lebka states, "I should go to work for whom?  For Morgan?  For Rockefeller?  For Henry Ford?  If the Capitalists go to work, then I'll go to work!  But they don't have to work; they have plenty of money."

DVD-R is in Yiddish with hard-encoded English subtitles.  Approx. 90 mins. + a 2 min. newsreel .

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