Motel the Operator

Motel the Operator

1940 · 88 min · ★ 10.0 · Drama

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.

Directed by Joseph Seiden

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Cast

Chaim Tauber Motel Friedman
Malvina Rappel Esther Friedman
Maurice Kroner Benjamin Rosenwald
Berthe Hart Rebecca Rosenwald
Seymour Rechtzeit Jack Rosenwald
Jacob Zanger Jacob 'Joseph' Frumkin
Yetta Zwerling Chane Belle 'Annabella' Frumkin
Gertrude Krause Ruth Frumkin
Herman Rosen Doctor
Izidor Frankel Boss
Seymour Rechzeit Jacob 'Jack' Rosenwald
Maurice Krohner Benjamin Rosenwald

Make it a double feature

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Motel the Operator

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