Turner Classic Movies screens Jewish experience

Since 2006, the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable and satellite TV network has hosted “The Projected Image,” a month-long showcase examining how different cultural and ethnic groups have been portrayed on the big screen. At last, after previously covering African Americans, Asians, the LGBT community, Latinos, Native Americans, Arabs, and people with disabilities, the annual series is delving into Jewish film this month.

“The Projected Image: The Jewish Experience on Film,” whose first segment aired Sept. 2, runs again on each of the next four Tuesdays at 8 pm. New Jersey-based film educator Eric Goldman organized the showcase with TCM producer Gary Freedman.

Freedman, who had produced several of the aforementioned cultural showcases for TCM, had been pushing for a Jewish festival for several years. He told JNS.org that he has a particular love for Israeli films, attributing his feeling to the Jewish state’s film industry being relatively new, innovative and freewheeling with storytelling, and surprisingly apolitical.

The Jewish film showcase was conceived when TCM got the rights to “Gentleman’s Agreement,” a 1947 Academy Award-winning film about a reporter who pretends to be Jewish to cover a story about anti-Semitism and personally experiences bigotry and hatred.

Goldman, the founder and president of the Ergo Media video publishing company, worked with Freedman to develop the showcase’s seven themes: the evolving Jew, the immigrant experience, the Holocaust, Israeli classics, the Jewish homeland, tackling prejudice, and coming-of-age stories. During the selection process, the organizers found that films were sometimes difficult to obtain or too expensive, but they ultimately assembled a lineup of films that they consider reflective of Jewish life and its challenges.

For the Israeli segment, Goldman wanted to feature rarely screened early films. One target was the 1949 film “Sword in the Desert,” made by an independent producer with Universal Studios and starring Dana Andrews, Jeff Chandler, Steve McNally, and Märta Torén, which tells the story of illegal immigrants coming ashore in Mandatory Palestine and running from the British. Also included is the first film produced in Israel, 1955’s “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer”—directed by a Brit. “They didn’t feel anyone in Israel was capable [of producing a film] yet,” said Goldman.

The “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer” cast included international actors as well as Israelis, three of whom wound up playing important roles in Israeli culture: Haya Harareet, who played opposite Charlton Heston in “Ben-Hur”; Margalit Oved, who became a dancer and choreographer; and Arik Lavie, who became a well-known Israeli balladeer.

The 1964 film “Sallah” got caught up in Israeli bureaucracy. Although TCM had an agreement with Israel to obtain the film, it had not yet been sent and no one in Israel was answering the network’s calls. Goldman came to the rescue. He made lots of calls and finally spoke to the general manager who had access to the film and the problem was resolved.

Goldman said he was not eager to show “Exodus,” based on Leon Uris’s book, since many have seen it. But after introducing the film at last year’s New York Jewish Film Festival, he watched the film and changed his mind.

“[It] is long and a little dated, but so important in terms of the impact it had on American Jewish life and how Americans in general perceived Israel and connected with Israel,” he said. “For most people, it was their first opportunity to connect with Israel visually.”

Goldman chose a few controversial films to illustrate the “tackling prejudice” theme. One was 1934’s “House of Rothschild,” whose production the Anti-Defamation League tried to stop. When Goldman saw the opening scene—a Jewish moneylender, played by British actor George Arliss, puts a coin in his mouth to test its authenticity—he said he squirmed a little.

But when viewers “see where the film goes and [that] it is portraying how this Jew—who is forced to be a moneylender, who can’t own land—is persecuted by the Prussians,” they should realize that the Prussians were stand-ins for Germans and that “House of Rothschild” is an anti-Nazi film, explained Goldman.

Both “House of Rothschild” and “Gentleman’s Agreement” were produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, who was in his 30s and sought to fight prejudice. He was the only head of a major film studio at the time who wasn’t Jewish.

The third “tackling prejudice” film is 1947’s “Crossfire,” about a man apparently murdered by a soldier who was part of a group that had just gotten out of the army. The last film in that category, “Focus,” based on an Arthur Miller novel, was released right after the 9/11 attacks.

TCM’s Holocaust segment opens with 1953’s “The Juggler,” starring Kirk Douglas as a survivor having difficulty integrating into Israeli society. It was shot in Israel at a time when nobody in America was producing similar films. The director, Edward Dmytryk, a Polish Catholic who grew up in an anti-Semitic household, was behind three films Goldman considers among the most philo-Semitic ever made: “The Juggler,” “Crossfire,” and “The Young Lions” (1958), which tackled anti-Semitism in the military.

The opening film of the Holocaust segment is Orson Welles’s “The Stranger” (1946), about a Nazi war criminal who escapes to America, marries a judge’s daughter, and tries to make a place for himself. He is pursued by a Nazi hunter, played by Edward G. Robinson, who confronts the Nazi’s wife and, when she refuses to believe him, screens for her footage from the Holocaust. “The footage was compiled by Americans, largely to show to Germans; it was not really seen in this country to a great extent, and here it was in the middle of a fictional film,” said Goldman, adding that Wells was very liberal, passionate about rights and freedom, and a staunch opponent of bigotry and prejudice.

“The Evolving Jew” and “The Immigrant Experience” kicked off the series. “The Evolving Jew” featured two of the four film versions of “The Jazz Singer”: Al Jolson’s early sound film from 1927, and the 1952 remake starring Danny Thomas.

“In the 50s [version],” he said, “both father and son were college grads and the rabbi was called ‘Dr.,’ and you see where the Jew has come in the years in between [the versions].”