Die Rothschilds

The House of Rothschild had a great cast, which was what made me watch it in the first place. And I'm glad I did. Maybe there are lapses in the pacing, and some of the romantic parts felt a little trite. There is much to recommend about The House of Rothschild though. The lavish costumes and sets and the skilled photography makes it a beautiful film to watch. Alfred Newman's score always compliments and even adds to the drama rather than detracting from it, while the script is very intelligently written(Nathan talk on financing and war was really quite powerful) and the story, of which the subject was fascinating to begin with, is thoroughly absorbing with a beautiful ending. The acting is very good. George Arliss is wonderful in his dual role, Loretta Young is the epitome of youthful loveliness and Boris Karloff is commanding in both menacing and subdued mode. C. Aubrey Smith and Reginald Owen are similarly excellent.

Overall, beautiful to watch, well-written and acted and fascinating. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Darryl F. Zanuck covered Napoleon's sweep across Europe in two early films: "Lloyds of London," in which Tyrone Power plays a fictional character who continues insuring the British fleet so that his childhood friend, Horatio Nelson, can win the war; and "The House of Rothschild" in which Nathan Rothschild and his banker brothers provide the financing to beat Napoleon. Both are excellent films.

There are a few historical liberties in "The House of Rothschild," but the film is based on fact. George Arliss has a dual role as Mayer Rothschild and his son, Nathan.

When the film begins, the family is living in a Prussian Jewish ghetto where Mayer is doing well but doesn't want the tax collectors to know. On his deathbed, he instructs his sons to establish banking houses throughout Europe as so much money is stolen when it is being carried by messengers.

The plot then focuses on Nathan and goes into the rampant anti-Semitism which forces Nathan out of an important loan. It also shows his brilliance for business as he fights Count Ledrantz (Boris Karloff) who spreads propaganda and incites pogroms.

The climax of the film takes place when it appears Napoleon is winning and Nathan starts buying up everything on the stock market, which is bottoming out, in order to keep the deal he made for the war effort.

Though not much is made of it, the Rothschilds had informants everywhere, which enabled them to get information before anyone else. He is able to announce before it is made public that Napoleon has been defeated at Waterloo.

"House of Rothschild" stars one of the great actors, George Arliss. Other actors from the stage entering films often used tremulous voices and melodramatic gestures but Arliss had a tremendous speaking voice and a grand acting style that made a powerful impression on the screen and infused the characters he played with a believability as well.

A blond, beautiful Loretta Young is on hand as his daughter, who is in love with a Gentile named Fitzroy (Robert Young) - and though one would expect the love story to be fiction, it isn't.

This film has an interesting history of its own: Excerpts from it, taken out of context, were used in the anti-semitic Nazi films Der ewige Jude and Die Rothschilds.

Despite persecution, the Rothschilds remain an extremely powerful family in the present - the original name of the family was Bauer; Rothschild is actually German for "red shield," which is in the center of the family coat of arms.

Today, they're in a variety of occupations besides banking - actress Helena Bonham Carter is a Rothschild due to a marriage on her mother's side.

The movie tells the story of the beginnings of the Rotschild empire ,at a time (1934) when the Jews were about to suffer as never.The pogroms were a sinister omen of the Crystal Night which would happen in Germany and in Austria in 1938.And the worst was to follow as everybody knows.

I did not like the very beginning of the movie,which shows the Jews with the traditional spate of clichés.But further acquaintance with the old man shows this: he has realized that only money can bring him power and dignity and thus help his people.There is something biblical (Old Testament) when the patriarch sends his five sons to set up banks all over Europa (the score over the cast and credits includes snatches of "La Marseillaise" "Das Lied Der Deutschen" and "God save the king" ). George Arliss outclasses all the other actors ,even Boris Karloff ,in his portrayal of Nathan Rotschild,a noble gent ,probably too good and too generous to be true.Napoleon works behind the scenes ,although he plays a prominent part in the screenplay.The two Young (Robert and Loretta) supply the love interest in the Romeo (Christian or gentile) and Juliet (Jew) mold.

Dazzling finale in color ,which is quite a surprise for a 1934 movie!

This is quite a rousing film for a biopic, and sports one of Arliss's best performances. Made two years after Hitler's rise to power, the whole subtext of the film is anti-Semitism and the then-current events in Europe. Napoleon is the stand-in for Hitler--the man all peace-loving men must join together to wage war against to secure peace. There are scenes of violence in the Jewish ghetto--stirred up by anti-Semite Karloff. Everything Rothschild does he does to end anti-Semitism; many speeches on this theme. Rothschild's father is shown as a Shylock-type, making money with money, fooling the tax collector, but with reluctance and great bitterness, doing so only because other professions are denied him, and because the tax collector overcharges Jews. C. Aubrey Smith gives a really delightful performance as Wellington. The final scene is one of the first live-action sequences to be made in three-color Technicolor, before BECKY SHARP. The topicality gives the film an immediacy that is often lacking in period films.

This interesting early talkie from 1934 is a biopic of Nathan Rothschild, the British-German-Jewish banker from the times of Napoleon that is considered one of the founders of international finance. Rothschild is famous among many things from making a fortune in the London Stock exchange by speculating successfully on Wellington's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo (this is in this film, though apparently according to recent historians it probably never happened).

Rothschild, as portrayed in the film by George Arliss, is not a very likable person: unabashedly ethnocentric (he is adamant that his daughter must not marry a gentile suitor), he is always ready to take offense, views almost every non-Jew as anti-Semitic, is willing to use money to exercise power, etc. Probably because of this, the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels was an unlikely fan of this film, releasing an edited version in Germany (that emphasized the most negative aspects of the protagonist) and in 1940 he used an unauthorized clip from this film in the infamous anti-Semitic documentary "The Eternal Jew" and also had his own German remake, "The Rothschild's shares in Waterloo". The German film, by the way, despite its obvious propaganda intentions, is well made and has a literate, intelligent script. In a way, Rothschild is a more sympathetic character in the German film than in the Hollywood version! The Hollywood film is also notable for the last scene (in which Rothschild is knighted by the King) being shot in an early Technicolor process.