Critical Moments

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“The Wandering Jew” has an###ced his arrival in New York. ### a matter of fact, he has been ### for some months, safely hid### in a can of films which the ###kenham Film Studios made England.

When the picture first arrived was to have been played at the ###pitol, advertising appeared in ### papers and the usual ballyhoo ### been unleashed but at the last ##ment, after a number of prom#ent Jews had seen a preview of ### film, it was withdrawn and ##thing further was heard about until last week when, to every### surprise, it opened at the ###rion.

### reasons best known to the ###gement, this reporter was ##vited to the premiere or, up ### last night, to any showing the film, which made me sus###ous enough to enter via the ### office. Although the admis### was not excessive, I do not ### I got my money’s worth.

#ugene Sue’s famous novel, ### Wandering Jew,” has never ### considered exactly a pro###tic tract and by no stretch of ### imagination can the picture ###sion, which was adapted from the play by the late E. Temple Thurston, be labeled a landmark in the creation of good will for our race. It isn’t so much the actual story that is anti-Semitic; but the implications are unpleasant.

You probably remember the novel. The picture, however, follows the play more closely. It is an expanded version of the old legend of the Jew who is alleged to have spat upon Christ as He was dragging His cross to Calvary, the place of execution. For this act the Jew was doomed to live until the return of Christ to earth.

HIS LIFE SHOWN IN SICILY, SPAIN

In the film the life of the Jew is depicted during the three later periods. First he is an unknown and obscure knight in the First Crusade, then a merchant in {SPAN}Sici###{/SPAN} during the thirteenth century and finally a physician in Spain at the time of the Inquisition.

In this last period he is brought before the Inquisitors and sentenced to be burned, but the fire does not burst into flames. Instead, a beam of light—presumably from Heaven—shines on the Wandering Jew and he goes to his Maker, but not before he repents and discovers that the humble teachings of Christ have been perverted and Christianity has become a formalized and stilted creed.

Photographically the film is excellent and the acting of Conrad Veidt in the title role is superior, especially his ability to make understandable the changes in character the Wandering Jew underwent because of his experiences.

“The Wandering Jew” is a slow moving, unhappy picturization of a legend that no longer needs retelling. Its effect will be harmful to Jewry. Based on a highly dubious incident in the career of a man whose very existence is shadowed by all kinds of doubts, it has given strength to the now disapproved “Christ-killer” myth.

Its revival is unfortunate at a moment when fright and uncertainty grip people’s minds and when any charlatan can make capital of this sort of thing to take men away from the reality that surrounds them.

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