Ooh, Fannie Hurst again

Author Fannie Hurst wrotesome works that got turned into rather melodramatic movies. I've blogged about the 1960s version of Back Street before, as well as both versions of Imitation of Life. Recently I had the chance to watch another movie based on a work by Hurst, Symphony of Six Million.

The movie starts off at some time in the past when the Jewish immigration was congregated in Manhattan's Lower East Side. One immigrant family is the Klaubers with parents Meyer (Gregory Ratoff) and Hannah (Anna Appel) and three kids. Felix is the middle kid, a bookish boy who's got an interest in medicine, while his older brother Magnus is more interested in moving up the socioeconomic ladder.

Fast forward twenty years or so. Felix (Ricardo Cortez) has in fact become a doctor, interested in ministering to the poor people still living in the tenements. He's also got a potential girlfriend in Jessica (Irene Dunne), someone with a decidedly non-Jewish name but who also works with the poor, in her case the blind children. She's got a handicap of her own thanks to a spinal deformity. Meanwhile, Magnus (Noel Madison) has become somewhat financially successful, and wants Felix, who is in a prestigious profession, to move uptown to treat wealthier patients and get their parents out of the tenements. And to be fair, the parents would like some more leisure.

It works, and Felix goes uptown with the rest of the family, although Felix does still have some misgivings. Life is financially rewarding but not spiritually fulfilling, and things are about to get worse. At a religious ceremony for Felix's young nephew, Meyer collapses, and somehow, Felix is the only one who can perform the brain surgery to save Dad. (Didn't they have specialists back then?) Dad dies on the operating table, and then Jessica needs an operation too even though she's down in the ghetto.

Symphony of Six Million is a decided melodrama, and as I was watching it, I couldn't help but think of another movie whose title I couldn't remember. Thankfully I recalled it was a Frank Capra film, and looking it up I knew I was thinking of The Younger Generation, surprised that is also starred Ricardo Cortez.

Cortez does a good job in Symphony of Six Million while Dunne is miscast. The material, to be honest, is a bit of an acquired taste, and certainly won't be for everybody. I think I liked The Younger Generation a bit more, but Symphony of Six Million is certainly worth a watch.

Symphony of Six Million is available on DVD courtesy of the Warner Archive collection.