A Casa de Rothschild

Before Paul Muni was doing biographical films at Warner Brothers, George Arliss was doing them before. Arliss a veteran of the British theater was one of the first to recognize the importance of film in preserving the actor's art. He did even more silent films than sound which took advantage of his magnificent speaking voice and perfect English diction. His acting today is considered hammy by many, but for me I like the idea of being able to understand every enunciated word.

In The House Of Rothschild Arliss plays the dual role of patriarch Meyer Rothschild and later Nathan, one of the five sons whom he dispatched to various European capitals to establish the family banking business. This was in the 1780s-90s. By 1814 the House is well established throughout Europe and even when countries are at war, The House Of Rothschild acts as a unit. Though the Paris branch has to be a bit discreet with Napoleon Bonaparte making war on all the rest of the places the brothers have set up shop.

The money lender is never a popular figure. It's the reason why when Jews were forbidden to own land and frozen out of certain businesses and trades, they were allowed to be bankers. That way it was a double whammy in unpopularity for them.

The House Of Rothschild even with Napoleon making entreaties to the Jewish people backs the Allied cause to the hilt. It wins the gratitude of someone no less than the Duke of Wellington played by Sir C. Aubrey Smith. But Prussian banker Ledranz played by Boris Karloff makes no secret of his anti-Semitism. Quite a daring piece for 1934 as Hitler was starting his war on the Jews and few were speaking out.

Florence Arliss the real life wife of George Arliss plays his wife Hannah in his Nathan persona. But Helen Westley is mother Rothschild and she gives a lively performance. It is she whom you will remember best from this film after George Arliss.

Robert Young and Loretta Young play a Wellington aide and a Rothschild daughter who fall in love and are the secondary romantic plot in this film. But it's Arliss's portrayal of the shrewd and intrepid Nathan Rothschild and the story of the fortune that is the heart of the film. And it is a big heart in every sense of the word.

Five brothers, born & raised in a Jewish ghetto at the end of the 18th Century. Taught by their parents in the ways of international finance & commerce, but above all in living a life of dignity as Jews. Five brothers who grew to establish banks wielding enormous power from the five great European capitals - Frankfurt, London, Paris, Vienna, Naples - yet who always worked together for the common goal of peace in Europe & the destruction of tyranny. Five brothers united as THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD.

In this lavish film, Mr. George Arliss gives yet another splendid history lesson and this time the old fellow gets to play two roles: Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the dynasty; and eldest son Nathan Rothschild, who established the London branch of the family. As always, Arliss is fascinating to watch, his every twitch conveying significance & meaning. It is a shame he is almost forgotten today, as he was a marvelous actor.

But he does not act alone here. Indeed, his co-stars are quite accomplished. As in so many of his films, his real-life wife Florence Arliss plays his (Nathan's) spouse and is charming, as usual. The somewhat obtrusive romantic subplot is handled by the two Youngs, Loretta & Robert, who look lovely & handsome respectively. Helen Westley is exceptional as Mayer's wife Gudula, the matriarch of the family. Also on hand are Reginald Owen, Alan Mowbray, Ivan Simpson, Ethel Griffies & wonderful old Sir C. Aubrey Smith as the Duke of Wellington - it is a particular treat to watch his scenes with Arliss.

A rather subdued & urbane Boris Karloff is the villain of the film, playing a Prussian nobleman who delights in being anti-Semitic. Pains are taken to show the evils inflected upon Continental Jewry during the age of repression & pogroms and it is important to remember that this film was produced in 1934, as Evil was once again raising its head in Central Europe. The ideas of men in the 19th Century, such as Karloff portrays here, would lead inexorably to the gas chambers & furnaces of Nazi Germany in the 20th. Forget Frankenstein's Monster. This was Karloff's most horrific role.

In the last 4 minutes, the movie turns from black & white to beautiful early Technicolor, a delight to the eyes.

There are a couple of glaring historical inaccuracies in the movie that must be pointed out. Nathan was not the elder of Mayer's sons - in fact he was the 3rd born. And it was not he, but his grandson, another Nathan, who was raised to the peerage to become Baron Rothschild in 1885, 49 years after the death of his grandfather. Trifling, yet significant.

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.

I also watched it the other day on the Fox Movie Channel and the final sequence was indeed not in color. That surprised me because I thought that surely their vault would have contained a print with the Technicolor finale.

About 15 years ago, the Castro Cinema here in San Francisco showed a series of 20th Century Fox classic films, all with 35 mm prints. The House Of Rothschild was shown with the beautiful Technicolor final sequence. The fact that it was not shown that way on the FMC was disappointing, but it was still great to see the film again, as it's so rarely shown.

... which is appropriate since he had the talent of at least two actors of any era. In this case Arliss plays both Mayer Rothschild and son Nathan after the house of Rothschild has begun to flourish into a huge banking enterprise. What makes these precode biopics of Arliss fun to watch is his mischief, the precocious energy of a five year old and the wisdom of a sage observer of human nature all packed into one lean unimposing frame. The precode era also allowed Arliss to make a comment here and there that likely would be censored in the production code era.

The time is that of the Napoleanic Wars and the Rothschilds, after funding the British in the first defeat of Napolean, find the British aristocracy develops a not so startling case of amnesia and begins treating Nathan Rothschild as an outsider - a Jew - and excludes him from their most lucrative deals. When Nathan Rothschild initially outsmarts them in business, the vindictive Count Ledrantz (Boris Karloff) incites riots against the Jews throughout Europe, even putting Nathan's own mother at risk back at the ancestral home in Germany. However, what nobody knows at the time is that Napolean will escape and a second campaign against him will be necessary. Will the Rothschilds go after their own best interests and back Napolean or will they again side with those that have discarded them - the British. Watch and find out.

Also watch George Arliss' other biopics of the early sound era - Disraeli, Voltaire, and Alexander Hamilton are the ones I've actually been able to see so far. All of these are very much worth your time.