Das alte Gesetz

Four years before 'The Jazz Singer', the same conflict between a young man yearning for the stage and his stern rabbi father was played out in its natural shtetl environment in this German super-production set in the 1860s.

At first resembling one of Edgar Ulmer's late 30's Yiddish films, the action relocates to Viennese high society with Henny Porten wandering in and out of the action as the Empress Elisabeth. This middle section drags terribly as it keeps pausing to shows off the sumptuouness of its décor and photography (the work of Alfred Junge and Theodor Sparkuhl who later fled to Britain and Hollywood respectively as part of Hitler's gift to the English-speaking cinema), before finally remembering the Rabbi still simmering back at home and reuniting him with his prodigal son for a conclusion that comes very abruptly after a build-up of over two hours.