Motel the Operator

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

Cast: Chaim Tauber, Malvina Rappel, Maurice Kroner, Berthe Hart, Seymour Rechtzeit, Jacob Zanger, Yetta Zwerling, Gertrude Krause

Audience-only score — full critic data not yet in the ReelXO vault.