OVP: The House of Rothschild (1934)

Film: The House of Rothschild (1934)

Stars: George Arliss, Loretta Young, Boris Karloff, Robert Young

Director: Alfred L. Werker

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Picture)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Robert Young: click here to learn more about Mr. Young (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Robert Young is an odd actor to pick for a series like this not because he doesn't fit the bill (in many ways he's the very definition of an actor who "made it big in TV after never landing in film" but because much of his film career doesn't have a lot of differentiation.  Unlike some stars we've profiled this year like Ann Sothern or Lucille Ball, his career doesn't have a lot of chapters.  Young began his career at the beginning of the Sound Era, initially working much of the first 15 years of his career at MGM, playing opposite big stars on the lot like Norma Shearer & Joan Crawford.  Young graduated from supporting work to love interest or third lead work rather quickly, and stayed there.  As a result, it's harder to fit a narrative around Young's work early in his career, but suffice it to say in 1934 he was clearly relegated to B movies on the MGM lot, working in a half dozen pictures a year at the time, and didn't appear to create much fuss over this.  One exception in his early career was when he was loaned to United Artists for a prestige biopic starring George Arliss, which was a big hit for the studio and won a Best Picture nomination: The House of Rothschild.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about the famed banking family the Rothschilds and their humble beginnings in a Jewish ghetto in Prussia which would, throughout the film graduate to them becoming the wealthiest family in Europe, helping to fund the Napoleonic wars (this film is not historically accurate, so I'm summarizing the plot, not the actual history).  The movie focuses first on the banking family's patriarch Mayer Rothschild (Arliss), who on his deathbed makes his five sons promise they'll always pursue wealth over all else.  As grown men, the smartest of the five Nathan (also Arliss) begins to grow his banking capital, frequently with the hurdle of anti-semitism, as some of the nobility refuses to interact with Nathan because he's Jewish, principally Count Ledrantz (Karloff, startlingly young without his typical Universal Monster movie makeup).  This causes Nathan to forbid his daughter Julie (Loretta Young) to see Captain Fitzroy (Robert Young), who is not Jewish.  By the end of the movie, though, money ends up being the true unifier, and Nathan is not only accepted into society but becomes a Baron, one who can condone Fitzroy & Julie's relationship.

It's always important to remember context when it comes to older movies.  In 1934, a film about anti-semitism was noteworthy, and it was particularly noteworthy given the parallels to what was going on in Europe at the time, with Hitler's rise to power on the backs of anti-Jewish rhetoric.  As a result, you'd almost be forgiven for thinking that this film being dated but still a hit was worth it; after all, who can argue against a movie, even a bad one, if it is espousing tolerance?

But The House of Rothschild to a modern audience reads as deeply antisemitic, showing the Jewish characters as money-loving & duplicitous.  Yes, they frequently get the upper-hand in arguments & overt antisemitism in the film (like when Count Ledrantz won't allow Rothschild to have a contract because of his ethnicity) is never rewarded, but the film plays into ugly Jewish stereotypes, and feels like the rare film about tolerance that reads as unflinchingly problematic and honestly, quite hateful.

On top of that, the movie is terrible.  It weirdly reads as a Big Short of its era, with Rothschild using difficult-to-understand stock market & loan maneuvering to ruin his opponents, and so you'd be forgiven if you didn't understand some of the more technical aspects of the film.  But Arliss (who, it should be noted, is not Jewish despite his most iconic parts being that of Jewish protagonists), is dreadful, every bit as bad as his Oscar-winning role as Benjamin Disraeli, and particularly bad as the Rothschild patriarch.  No one is good in this, not even Karloff (who is usually excellent even with bad material).  Our star is relegated to only a couple of scenes, and is largely window-dressing...he doesn't do much other than make out with Loretta Young (not a bad gig if you can get it, but still).  While this was a hit, it's easy to see why Young wasn't suddenly on critics' radars after a movie this banal.