Motel the Operator

Motel the Operator

88 mins | Drama | Jan. 15, 1940

Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

Motel the Operator

88 mins | Drama | Jan. 15, 1940

Motel the Operator
Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.
Producers Cinema Service Corp.
Original title Motl der Operator
Directors Herman Rosen, Joseph Seiden
Writers Chaim Tauber

Cast

Chaim Tauber

as Motel Friedman

Malvina Rappel

as Esther Friedman

Maurice Kroner

as Benjamin Rosenwald

Berthe Hart

as Rebecca Rosenwald

Seymour Rechtzeit

as Jack Rosenwald

Jacob Zanger

as Jacob 'Joseph' Frumkin

Yetta Zwerling

as Chane Belle 'Annabella' Frumkin

Gertrude Krause

as Ruth Frumkin

Herman Rosen

as Doctor

Izidor Frankel

as Boss

Seymour Rechzeit

as Jacob 'Jack' Rosenwald

Maurice Krohner

as Benjamin Rosenwald

Louis 'Leibele' Waldman

as The Cantor