L'ebreo errante

According to the legend, the Jewish shoemaker of Jerusalem met Jesus on his way to Golgotha and refused him any rest on the way. As a punishment he was sentenced to go on wandering forever without any rest not even in any grave. The film begins in Frankfurt 1935, where the protagonist collapses by an old professor's house, and on quickening the professor urges him to tell his whole story. He tells his whole story and wanders off.

Five years later in Paris he is a well situated banker of great wealth giving parties and leading a gay life when the Germans enter Paris. The Jewish community appeals to him for help by the same professor Epstein of Frankfurt, who now is a refugee in France and who to his astonishment recognises his patient from Frankfurt. He has a lovely niece who supports him in the appeal, and when the Jewish community is rounded up, our protagonist is there among them and joins them in the concentration camp. This is among the first films after the war to screen a rebellion in a concentration camp, and it is always interesting to see how the Hebrews organise and realise it.

This is one of Vittorio Gassman's first great roles, he is quite young and dashing and handles his machine gun well, and this was long before he became famous.

It's a great story, the script writers deserve some applause, and the acting, as in general in Italian films, is superb, especially maybe Valentina Cortese, the niece of professor Blumenthal, playing a kind of parallel role to. Paulette Goddard in "The Great Dictator", the moods here very much resembling those of Chaplin's film, leading up to the same kind of redemption. This is not a great film though, although the story is great enough, but already Eugène Sue's underlying novel of 1845 has some great weaknesses, dealing mainly with the Jesuits. Many other authors have used the material for fiction purposes but few films were made of it. This should be one of the first and best.