The Oppenheim Family
About The Oppenheim Family
In Germany in the early 1930s, literature teacher Dr. Heinzius dies in a scuffle with a drunken Nazi. Professor Vogelzang, played by Mikhail Astangov, takes his class at Queen Louise Gymnasium and humiliates Jewish student Berthold Oppenheim, throwing out a report on humanism and assigning Arminius instead. Berthold's father Martin refuses to merge the family furniture firm and brushes off talk of antisemitism. At Berthold's 17th birthday the poet Gutwetter gives a Nazi toast. Berthold later calls Arminius a symbol of barbarism, refuses Vogelzang's demand for a public apology, and, pressed by his father and by a 1 March deadline, takes his own life. Director Dr. François announces the death, blames Vogelzang, and resigns. Martin and his wife sell what they have and leave for France. Surgeon Edgar Oppenheim is arrested in the middle of an operation, then gets out of prison and crosses the border with his niece Ruth, while her friend Richard stays.
Cast & crew
More about The Oppenheim Family
Grigori Roshal directed Serafima Roshal's adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger's 1933 novel The Oppermanns. Feuchtwanger authorized the film. The family name in the title is Oppenheim. Leonid Kosmatov photographed it and Nikolai Kryukov wrote the music. English Wikipedia notes a May 1939 American release after the 1938 Soviet opening.
Themes
Background
The novel was published in 1933. The film, shot in 1938, was one of the first features to show Nazi persecution of a Jewish family as its subject.
Making
Roshal and his wife Serafima made the film at Mosfilm with Feuchtwanger's authorization, changing Oppermann to Oppenheim in the title.
Reviews
The New York Times review of the May 1939 Cameo run said the storm troopers' truncheons and boots had an unequivocal solidity and that, lacking better evidence, the film had to be taken as a document. The same review then called the Mosfilm production opportunist in its eye on foreign currency.
Look
Leonid Kosmatov shot the Berlin interiors, the gymnasium, and the street attacks.
Music
Nikolai Kryukov wrote the score.
Preservation
The film survives. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons, and it played the Cameo in New York in May 1939.
Notes
- Vladimir Balashov plays Berthold, Iosif Tolchanov plays Martin, Nikolai Plotnikov plays Edgar, and Ada Voytsik plays Liselotte.
- Solomon Mikhoels plays the assistant Jacobi. Galina Minovitskaya plays Ruth. Nikolai Bogolyubov plays Weller. Sergei Martinson plays Gutwetter.
- The English plot summary names Igor Ilyinsky as Vogelzang; the cast list on the same article credits Mikhail Astangov.
- The New York opening was at the Cameo in May 1939.
- The Russian title is Семья Оппенгейм.
Scenes
- Gutwetter offers a Nazi toast at Berthold's 17th birthday.
- Berthold's report treats Arminius as a symbol of barbarism.
- Dr. François announces Berthold's death and resigns.
- Edgar is taken out of his operating room.
Influenced by
- Lion Feuchtwanger's novel The Oppermanns (1933)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1938. Семья Оппенгейм.webm)
Quotes
Germany will be ours, Ruth!
