The Cantor's Son

1937
U
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

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Moyshe Oysher in The Cantor's Son (1937)

This musical drama marks the screen debut of Moishe Oysher, in a film critic J. Hoberman calls an "anti-Jazz Singer." Oysher stars as a wayward youth who makes his way from his Polish shtetl... Read allThis musical drama marks the screen debut of Moishe Oysher, in a film critic J. Hoberman calls an "anti-Jazz Singer." Oysher stars as a wayward youth who makes his way from his Polish shtetl to New York's Lower East Side where he is "discovered" and becomes a well-known singer. U... Read allThis musical drama marks the screen debut of Moishe Oysher, in a film critic J. Hoberman calls an "anti-Jazz Singer." Oysher stars as a wayward youth who makes his way from his Polish shtetl to New York's Lower East Side where he is "discovered" and becomes a well-known singer. Ultimately, he returns home to the Old Country and reunites with his parents and his childh... Read all

Directors
- Ilya Motyleff
- Sidney M. Goldin
Writers
- Louis Freiman
- Mark Schweid
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Ilya Motyleff
- Sidney M. Goldin
Writers
- Louis Freiman
- Mark Schweid
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

User reviews1

6.939

Featured reviews

10mzober

Enjoy Yiddish cultural and cantonal artistry

We just saw this most remarkable piece of Yiddish film history at the Jerusalem Film Festival. It is a must for those who love Yiddish culture and cantonal artistry.

While the story is dated, is is a great period piece that takes you to a small shtetl - Belz and to the turn of the 20th Century immigrant experience.

We enjoyed seeing Jewish boy struggle and make it in his new country only to return back home to celebrate his parents' golden wedding anniversary and face new choices and challenges.

Kudos to the Brandeis University and the film project for preserving this important work.

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Trivia
The film ends with the hero forsaking the fame and fortune he found in America, as well as his Jewish-American girlfriend, to marry his childhood sweetheart and, it is broadly hinted, to succeed to his father's position as cantor of the Belz Synagogue. In real life, if this had happened, he would have almost certainly been caught up in the terrible events of 1939-1940: many Jewish residents of the real town of Belz were forced to flee to the Soviet Union during the joint German and Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939; those that remained, together with other Jewish refugees, were deported to Hrubieszów, another small town in Poland, and from there to the Sobibor extermination camp. The synagogue itself was destroyed by the Nazis during the war and demolished in the 1950's.