So much average

An Exercise In Nonsense

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The plot line of immigrant children rejecting their culture to try to get ahead in the "new world" was quite common in the early 30s ("Unashamed" (1932), "Forgotten" (1933)) but almost disappeared with the introduction of the production code. Movie moguls (most of whom were Jewish) wanted to prove that they were "loyal Americans" and to squash what they felt was Jewish clannishness. Even Ricardo Cortez wasn't really Ricardo Cortez but Jacob Kranz, son of a New York Jewish butcher. He had been discovered for movies in the mid 1920s and given a more romantic sounding name in a bid to be a successor to Rudolph Valentino. This particular film plot sounds suspiciously like Universal's "His People" of 1925, complete with a scene in which the upwardly mobile lawyer son denies his parents at a party!!Morris is the light of his mother's life but he is also a little tyrant and when Eddie (Leon Janney) sees him bullying his sister, Birdie, he crawls across from his tenement and they have a fight, which causes a fire. This results in their flat being guttered but resourceful Morris declares that with the items he saved they can now have a fire sale. Mama is proud but Papa (Jean Hersholt) philosopically declares that money can't but happiness.As the years go by, thanks to Morris's shrewdness, the family fortunes rise from second hand dealers to a 5th Avenue antique store - although Papa can't forget the happiness of those "street corner days" with himself and his old cronies. Wealth has not made him happy, even the butler doesn't laugh at his jokes. Birdie feels the same and has carried on her friendship with Eddie (Rex Lease).A "talkie sequence" follows, when Morris (Ricardo Cortez) says he has changed his name from Goldfish to Fish. "Goldfish is dead - long live Mr. Fish"!! Birdie declares. There is also a confrontation between Morris and Eddie when he comes to call. This sequence shows that all the leads had nothing to fear from the "talkies" - all of them spoke clearly but it did slow the film down somewhat. Eddie is desperate to get some money to marry Birdie and falls in, unknowingly, with a gang of crooks who want him to plug songs in front of a jewellers - while they rob it!!! With all this happening, Morris feels he has been disgraced socially - yes, it's all about him!! and he throws Birdie out - unbeknownst to Papa, who spends the next two years in a depressed state. Morris sees to it that he receives none of Birdie's desperate letters.Even though Eddie is in jail, things are looking up. Birdie, who now has a baby boy, has sold one of Eddie's songs for $1,000!! After denying his parents (in a very poignant part, when they come home from celebrating becoming grandparents, he purposely mistakes them for servants) you know it is not going to end happily for Morris. At the end, even Morris's biggest champion, Mama, knows she will be happier living with Birdie and Eddie who, even though they have come up in the world, have never forgotten who they are - maybe Morris, who sits empty and alone, huddling in one of mama's blankets, may soon remember as well.Lina Basquette was just terrific in this movie, as was Jean Hersholt. I found her a lot more believable in this one than "The Godless Girl". She was one star who really improved with talking pictures. 1929 should have been her year as she was in two very fine films but "The Godless Girl", even though a Cecil B. DeMille production was a silent and "The Younger Generation" was a silent with talking sequences. Very unusual in 1929 when silent movies were almost a thing of the past.

THE YOUNGER GENERATION is a transitional film. In other words, it was originally a silent film but with the advent of sound in 1927, like many films in production it was held from release and hastily converted to sound. In some cases, such films were crudely overdubbed or all new scenes were added. Now it should be noted that most of these films were NOT 100% sound films, but bits and pieces of sound dialog were added here and there. This is even true to the groundbreaking 'sound' film, THE JAZZ SINGER--as most of the movie actually was still silent. By 1930, such practices were over in the US and films all films were 100% sound (with a few very rare exceptions, such as Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS). Interestingly, this conversion took many more years to take place throughout the rest of the world--with silents still predominating in China and Japan until the late 1930s.This is an interesting film because it's one of the few times in which leading man Ricardo Cortez played a Jewish man. This is interesting because although he had a Hispanic name, this was not his real name--and he was, in fact, Jacob Krantz--Jewish through and through. I guess the studio thought it best, but it seems sad that he publicly pretended to be something he wasn't. But, back in the 1920s and 30s, being a Jew certainly was NOT an asset for a handsome leading man.In addition to Cortez, the other interesting star in the film is Jean Hersholt. While this very prolific character actor may not be a household name, the Oscar's special award for community service was named after him, the Hersholt Humanitarian Award--as Hersholt was the man responsible for the creation of the actor's retirement home and hospital (among other such work).The film is in some ways like a reworking of the recent hit, THE JAZZ SINGER. Like the JAZZ SINGER, this story involves a Jewish family and a son who violates tradition--much to the consternation of his father. In this case, Cortez becomes very successful in business and thinks that this means his family should pretend that their ethnic history does not exist. In other words, Cortez wants to be accepted by the rich folk and to do so, he wants to abandon his heritage--and changes his name from 'Goldfish' to 'Fish' (a common practice among assimilating Jews during this era). While he does bring his family with him to his new 5th Avenue home, he won't allow them to bring in their old friends and insists they act like rich Gentiles. He even drives his sister's boyfriend off as he's no longer 'acceptable'. While this is bad, it's made much worse because in addition to becoming a snob, Cortez really becomes a nasty jerk as well and it's really, really easy to hate him--especially when it comes to his treatment of his sister. Will Cortez see the light? Will his family continue to put up with the prison-like life he's given them? Will they finally just punch him in the schnoz and say "enough's enough"?! Tune in for yourself and see--though I'll let you know that Cortez' treatment of his parents becomes abominable...and rather heartbreaking.Overall, it is very well done and is a wonderful little portrait of an America that no longer exists--the first and second generation Jewish immigrants. Now, much more fully integrated into the society, the Lower East Side is no longer Jewish and the tough life you see them leading is a bygone era. For history and social studies teachers and students, this is an excellent film--and better than its predecessor, THE JAZZ SINGER--even if it is awfully similar.By the way, in many of these partly sound films, you may notice that the silent portions seem to move too fast. That's because silent films had no standard speed at which to run them (which varied from 16-22 frames per second) and sound always ran at 24 frames per second. So, when a silent portion is run through a sound projector, it is slightly sped up--giving it an odd sped-up look. The only times you don't see this is when quality VHS and DVD releases have the speed adjusted to the proper rate.

Younger Generation, The (1929)** 1/2 (out of 4)Early Capra melodrama has poor Jewish family taken out of the ghetto by their youngest son (Ricardo Cortez) who strikes it big. He moves his father (Jean Hersholt), mother (Rosa Rosanova) and sister (Lina Basquette) into a large house and expects them to do what he says and stay away from the "filth" they grew up around. Soon the three start to realize that money can't buy happiness but will the son learn this before it's too late? At this point in time Columbia was still a very small studio so they couldn't afford to go all in in terms of sound movies so this is another example of a silent with a few sound segments scattered throughout the film. I've always found this to be incredibly distracting but I think Capra does a great job at when to use the sound and I also think the quality of the recorded words is among the best I've heard from this era. Considering how poor the studio was it's rather shocking that some of the other studios early talkies didn't come off sounding better. With that said, there are some major problems with the film but for the most part it's a nice time filler that fans of the director will want to check out. The biggest problem is that even in 1929 this material was way too predictable. There's really not a single thing that happens in the film that you won't see coming from a mile away. The format pretty much follows every morality film that came before it and I just wish at some point Capra would have shaken things up just to keep us off guard or at least in some drama. It should come as no shock that Capra does a great job with what's here and manages to keep the film moving quite fast and he keeps it as entertaining as the screenplay will allow. The cast also keeps things moving nicely with their fine performances. Cortez would play this type of role countless times in his career and he always managed to do good with it. Hersholt clearly steals the film as the tortured father. In the end, this isn't the greatest film ever made but I think Capra did the most he could considering what he had to work with. I think those who like to search out these early talkies will find the quality here to be above average and will make one wonder why some of the bigger studios didn't have their stuff sounding as good.

In this film, we see Morris Goldfish (Ricardo Cortez) bring success to his Jewish family, first as a young newspaper boy in New York City, and later a very successful, ambitious businessman. His mother (Rosa Rosanova) sees his skills, and encourages him, but the father and sister miss their old ramshackle home and old friends on the lower east side. This is one of the crossover films, where the soundtrack technology was invented while the film was being made. About halfway through the film, it switches from a silent film with title cards into a talking picture with sound track. Then it goes back to using title cards until the very end, with the final scene using sound again. Most of the cast had been making silent films for years, so they probably had to adjust to the sound portions. Good job by most of the cast. Papa Goldfish (Jean Hersholt) spends most of the film lamenting their new high-society lifestyle, and it gets annoying after a while. He won't even be happy when one of his kids gets engaged and married. We watch as Morris gets more and more successful, and he treats his own family very badly. Most of the story is told in dialogue, and after the big, grand opening, it looks like the rest was filmed in one room. This came out just before the big money crash of 1929, so we can assume that Morris will get what he deserves later, even if this story ends mostly on a sad note.