The legend of the Jew condemned by Christ to wander the earth for centuries without ever finding peace has been brilliantly depicted in Eugéne Sue's monumental novel of 1845 but strangely enough this has never been given the cinematic treatment it deserves.
Maurice Elvey's remake in 1933 of his own silent version is a real chore to sit through and is only made bearable by the presence of the superlative Conrad Veidt in the title role.
Fast forward to 1948 and we have the bizarre but gripping 'L'Ebreo errante' of Goffredo Alessandrini starring the brilliant twenty-six year old Vittorio Gassman who had already built a reputation as a fine stage actor and whose breakthrough film role was to come the following year in 'Riso Amaro'. His performance in this is stunning and must surely have been informed by his half-Jewish parentage.
It is in the second half that the power of this film really lies as the title character, here personified as rich Jewish banker Matteo Blumenthal is packed off to a concentration camp where he is finally granted the chance to atone for his sin.
The cast is international which results in some rather dodgy dubbing but also some fascinating performances. The humanist Professor Epstein is played by Russian Petr Sharov whilst French Noelle Norman is an icy blonde Aryan and German Harry Heist an utterly obnoxious Nazi agent. Herr Heist is perfect casting as he had previously sent shivers down the spine as the monstrous Major Bergmann in 'Rome, open City'.
Even allowing for the mysteries of Italian post-synchronisation I was surprised to learn that both Gassman and Valentina Cortese as Esther have been dubbed although excellently so by Sandro Ruffini and Rina Morelli.
This is an early attempt to tackle the issues of the Holocaust and as such the scenes in the camp are deeply visceral. Interestingly the technical advisor is Alessandro Fersen who had endured a spell in Matthausen which no doubt explains the chilling words 'Arbeit macht frei' above the gates. Another advisor is Aldo Bizzari, a leading light of Italian-Jewish theatre, which gives authenticity to the earlier scenes of Jewish ritual.
Goffredo Alessandrini's strong visual sense is evident here and his participation in this film is particularly striking considering his renown as one of the finest directors of 'propogandist' films under Mussolini. It has been suggested by one film historian that in making this Alessandrini was 'exorcising his guilt'. Sounds plausible to me.
