Motel the Operator (1940)
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.
Director: Joseph Seiden
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Chaim Tauber as Motel Friedman |
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Malvina Rappel as Esther Friedman |
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Maurice Kroner as Benjamin Rosenwald |
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Berthe Hart as Rebecca Rosenwald |
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Seymour Rechtzeit as Jack Rosenwald |
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Jacob Zanger as Jacob 'Joseph' Frumkin |
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Yetta Zwerling as Chane Belle 'Annabella' Frumkin |
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Gertrude Krause as Ruth Frumkin |
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Herman Rosen as Doctor |
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Izidor Frankel as Boss |
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Seymour Rechzeit as Jacob 'Jack' Rosenwald |
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Maurice Krohner as Benjamin Rosenwald |
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Joseph Schoengold as |
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Louis 'Leibele' Waldman as The Cantor |
| Writing | Chaim Tauber | Theatre Play |
| Directing | Joseph Seiden | Director |
| Sound | Paul Jacobs | Sound |
| Art | F. Allstadt | Art Direction |
| Directing | Herman Rosen | Assistant Director |
| Sound | Murray Dichter | Sound |
| Camera | Charles Levine | Director of Photography |
| Camera | Don Malkames | Director of Photography |
| Sound | Sholom Secunda | Original Music Composer |
