Straight Is the Way

It was very rare to see Jewish characters in movies, and even television until maybe the 1980s. Willy Loman probably is meant to be. Fred and Ethel Mertz -- Need I identify the work in which any of these appear? -- probably were too. But Hollywood chickened out.

Not so here. May Robson is very concerned about having the Sabbath candles lighted. Her son, played by Franchot Tone, is just out of prison. They live in a walk-up apartment in a tenement (as do I.) Oddly, it seems that this building has only four floors. Tenements usually have five and sometimes six.

Tone is at his best in this sort of serious role. Also, as Bertha, the girl his mother ants him to marry, Karen Morley is most touching. Gladys George plays a sneering bad girl. To me, that's a waste: She could be so poignant she could break your heart. Here, as Shirley, she looks a little like Mae West and is not at all likable. (This is not to say the actress turns in a bad performance. She was incapable of that.) Nat Pendleton gives a subdued performance. That guy was never a star but he was always reliable.

I'd be curious to know what motivated MGM, of all studios, to turn out a movie with what then was such a daring setting. It pays off, in any case. The plot is routine but the honesty of the characters' ethnic makeup is refreshing.