Serial Number: 20005
Title: Polish Jew, The (1931)
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Country of Origin: FRANCE
Genre: Private Gallery - The 30's
Subject: Judaica
Size: GRANDE 47x63
Condition: VF/EX
Card Number: N/A
Price: $NOT FOR SALE
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| Actors/Actresses: Harry Baur |
| Notes: Director: Jean Kemm; Original title: Le Juif Polonais. Based on an old novel dating back to 1867. A stage play based on the novel, by the name “The Bells”, was produced over the years a number of times. The production of this French film was intended, in part, to showcase the acting abilities of the respected and admired French actor Harry Baur who was from the French region of Alsace-Lorraine, as is the protagonist in this film, and the murderer of “The Polish Jew”. This is very ironic because Harry Baur was not a Jew, contrary to a popular assumption, and while working on a movie in Berlin in 1942, was arrested by the Gestapo, ostensibly on a charge of espionage, but in reality because he was believed to be a Jew. He spent time in jail, tortured, had to furnish proof that we was Aryan, before eventually being released, only to die a few months later, no doubt because of that ordeal. An American silent movie that was based on the same story, was made in 1926 titled “The Bells” and starring Lionel Barrymore in the lead role. |
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