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ON A HEYM
(WITHOUT A HOME)
based on Jacob Gordin's
drama
directed by Aleksander
Marten
screenplay by Alter Kaczyne
music by Iso Szajewicz
released in the U.S. on March 21, 1939
black & white
90 minutes
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This silent, black-and-white film was
shown at the Garden
Theatre,
Brooklyn, New York, for one night only on Monday,
September 21, 1942.
Below is the synopsis of the film, as it appeared in the
program for the film, as well as six photographs that
were included within this program.
"A
powerful dramatic story on a big theme full of gripping
situations."
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The last Yiddish feature made in
Poland before WWII, this 1939 film was based on a 1907
play by the prolific playwright Jacob Gordin. Best known
for his folksy didacticism and moralism, Gordin brought
the common life of the Lower East Side to the Yiddish
stage. With over 100 plays to his credit, Gordin was a
formative influence on modern Yiddish theater. He was so
popular among theatergoers that reportedly a quarter of
a million people attended his funeral in New York City.
Without a Home is the story of the separation and
hardships faced by immigrants in America at the turn of
the century. Its touching portrayal of the hardships of
immigrant life enthralled Jewish theater audiences and
it became part of the standard Yiddish stage repertoire
in America and Poland. The film provides a poignant and
dramatic picture of a difficult era, focusing on the
bleak prospects for the survival of traditional Jewish
family values. When the eldest son of the Rivkin family
is drowned, the father leaves his family in Europe to go
to America. There he finds only financial hardship and
loneliness, struggling to find a way to bring the rest
of his family over. The stellar cast includes stage
actress Ida Kaminska and the hilarious comedy duo,
Dzigan and Shumacher, who provide a healthy measure of
comic relief. The title, Without a Home, intended by
Gordin to symbolize the uprooted Jewish immigrant family
and by extension, the Jewish people, was a particularly
poignant one for Jewish film audiences in Poland on the
eve of WWII. The film underscored the growing sense
among Polish Jews facing the Nazi threat and increasing
anti-Semitism in Poland that they too might soon be
"without a home."
-- from Anonymous, www.imdb.com |
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Here is a review of the film,
which first appeared in the Yiddish Forward (Forverts)
newspaper on April 7, 1939. The review was written by B. Levitin:
"WITHOUT A HOME," A NEW
YIDDISH TALKIE
The film is made from Jacob
Gordin's drama with the same name.
-- The main role is played by
Ida Kaminska, the daughter of Esther Rachel Kaminska.
To the family of Yiddish talkies is
now added another Yiddish film. The name is "Without a
Home." The talkie is adapted from Jacob Gordin's famous
play with the same name, which thirty years back was
strongly popular among the Jewish audiences. The film
now will be shown in the Clinton Theatre in Downtown
Manhattan, and in a series of movie houses in the Bronx
and Brownsville.
The story as it is told in the film
is a little different than the contents of Jacob
Gordin's drama, and here the change ruins the whole drama. The
soul was taken out of it, and what remains is as
colorless as an incomprehensible event.
In Gordin's drama it was about an
intelligent, Jewish immigrant who quickly Americanized
in the time that his wife remained an old-fashioned Jew
who could not absorb the spirit of the new life in
America. The young man met a singer, who was a lovely
and lively girl, and whose moral feelings did not
prevent her from taking a husband from his wife. The
intelligent young man sees for himself the contrast
between the two women. On the one hand, the beautiful
American singer flirts with him, which draws him more
and more to the stream of American life, and from the
other side for him stands his old-fashioned wife, who
doesn't want to shake off the spirit of the old country,
from which he wanted to flee, where pepper grows. The
young man feels unhappy in his own home. This means that
he will find happiness with the singer, and he goes away
to live with her.
The young man leaves his
home, but not alone. He has a young son, whom he takes
with him to his lover, because he wants him to be
liberated from the influence of his old-fashioned
mother. You can see that the mother feels unhappy. She feels
that she doesn't deserve such cruelty of fate, to lose
both her husband and her child. She takes it strongly to
heart, and finally, she is moved by madness and is taken to
an insane asylum. The wife has thus lost her home.
But the husband also finds a home
with his lover. The first couple of years, when he was
still drunk with love to the younger singer, he tried to
forget his unhappy wife. He also forgot to pay proper
attention to his child, which he took with him to his
sweetheart. The young boy becomes acquainted with bad
friends and goes down the same [bad] path.
Several years passes. His wife
recovers from her attack of insanity, and she gets so
much better that she is allowed to go home. When the
singer learns that her lover's wife is returning from
the hospital, she does not want to be with her lover any
more. The husband returns home, but this child was
already so much alienated from the mother that he
doesn't want to stay. Meanwhile, the young boy becomes
implicated in a serious crime and is arrested.
The terrible news of her child's
arrest brings on her a new attack of craziness, and she
is again taken to the insane asylum. There this is now her
place. She has no other home. The bottom line is that
the whole family remains without a home. The wife is in
the insane asylum, and the son is in prison. And the
husband goes around not having a place to bury his head.
Jacob Gordin took the theme for his drama from the "Bintel
Brief" in the "Forward." The drama thus was founded on
an ordinary event in life. It has been staged by several
artists, such as Jacob P. Adler, Sara Adler, Peter Graf,
and others. It is therefore no wonder that the stage had
put on a strong drama that kept the entire audience
excited.
The directors of the film, "Without
a Home," openly wanted to improve Jacob Gordin's drama,
but besides the name, they left little of Gordin's
work.
The action begins in the old
country. Here lives a poor Jewish family of fishermen. The leader of the fishing friends is Abe Rivkin.
A storm comes, and it destroys the boats and their nets.
The fishermen remain without an income. Abe Rivkin, a
strong, ignorant young man, travels to America. There he
finds a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant. In this
restaurant there works a young girl with the name of
Bessie, who sings Yiddish songs heartily. The songs have
a magnetic effect on the yearning heart of the former
fisherman. He yearns for the old country, and he still yearns
for his wife and child.
Bessie notices that the dishwasher
goes around like a mourner, a dreamer. She finds out
about his bankruptcy and about his wife and child, and she
lends him money so that he can bring his family here. The wife
and child, and also his father, come to America. But the
young man who so longed for his wife and child seldom
comes home. He works all nights in a restaurant. He is
enchanted with Bessie's songs.
Bessie is portrayed as a true
angel. She does everything so that the dishwasher could
go home and live happily with his wife. When he gives
her a hint, in a very naive manner, that he is in love
with her, she rebukes him without telling him to go to
his wife. The young boy lives with his mother and with
his grandparents. He works hard selling newspapers, and
he does everything possible so that his father could
come home. The father comes, but not really. Why not? It
is not entirely clear. He has his child, he has the
courage of his wife. The beautiful Bessie laughs out
loud from his declarations of love. In his ignorant
condition he has more in common with his old-fashioned
wife than with the beautiful singer. Why doesn't he
come home today? About that question, the film does not
answer.
And because there is no
understandable declaration of the unhappy family life
of the former fisherman Abe Rifkin. These types have no
life, and they shine around having a purpose and a goal.
The only tragic figure, who has a reason to be unhappy,
is Abe Rifkin's wife, Bas Sheva. The role is played by
Ida Kaminska, the daughter of the deceased actress
Esther Rachel Kaminska. She conducts herself in the role
very well.
The film ends with this, that the
wife leaves the insane asylum, and Abe Rifkin with his
son remain without a home.
It is really a shame that the
directors spoiled such a good drama. In the last years
there were produced several first-class Yiddish films,
with which one did not have to contend with American
films, both in content, as well as in the art of the
acting, as well as the photography of the scenes.
Unfortunately one can not say this about the new film.
With the directors' changes to the content, they
weakened the drama, and the film did not bring out the
mother's import within the drama, "Without a Home."
The actors in the film are: Abe
Rifkin, played by Alex Marten; The Old Fisherman -- Adam
Domb; The Younger Fisherman -- Sh. Dzigan; Bas Sheva
Rifkin -- Ida Kaminska; Philip Weiss; Y. Shumacher;
Bessie -- Wiera Gran; Lina -- Dora Fakiel; Production,
Adolph Mann; Director, A. Marten; Distribution -- United
Films Arts Corporation.
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