The Cantor's Son (DVD)

In a shtetl in Eastern Europe, young Saul Reichman dreams of a life far away from his overbearing father, Cantor Zanvel. He runs away from home and journeys to America hoping for success. Instead he winds up busing tables at a nightclub on New York's Lower East Side. One day while washing dishes, Saul is overheard singing and given a chance to perform on stage. Soon people are coming from all over New York to hear the young man's beautiful singing voice. A radio show and a tour of the United States follow soon after. Despite his new fame, Saul finds that he cannot forget the family he left behind in the old country, particularly the father he once hated. Learning that his parents' golden wedding anniversary is fast approaching, Saul decides to return home, even if it costs him his career...

Called the "anti-Jazz Singer" by film critic J. Hoberman in his book Bridge of Light, The Cantor's Son inverts the premise of that venerable parable of the American Jewish experience. It also reflects the life of its star, Moishe Oysher, who was a cantor for multiple New York synagogues while at the same time juggling a successful singing and acting career. The film even co-stars his real-life wife, Florence Weiss. The Cantor's Son was one of three Yiddish language pictures Oysher made. The others are The Singing Blacksmith (1938) directed by Edgard G. Ulmer and Overture to Glory (1940) directed by Max Nosseck. The Cantor's Son was meant to be the first of six "Yiddish film operas" directed by Sidney M. Goldin and produced by Eron Pictures. Goldin tragically suffered a heart attack during filming in Easton, PA, dying in a New York hospital on September 19, 1937. He was replaced for the remainder of shooting by Russian stage director Ilya Motyleff, a former assistant to the legendary Konstantin Stanislavski. Though he would later direct plays on Broadway and at the Pasadena Playhouse, The Cantor's Son is Motyleff's only motion picture credit.

• drama