Saturday, September 18, 2004
THE LIGHT AHEAD: I had every intention of watching one of Poverty Row director Edgar Ulmer's most famous films, Detour, on TCM Friday night. Instead, VH1's search for the "new" Partridge Family put me soundly asleep until 3 in the morning, meaning I'll have to try harder next time. So instead, I woke up in the middle of the night to something I definitely wasn't expecting.
The Light Ahead, made in 1939, is anchored in the Yiddish theater of the early 20th century, and features a number of actors from the Yiddish Art Theater. So from that tradition, we get David Opatoshu, at the start of a long film and TV career, as Fishke, a crippled peddler, and Helen Beverly as Hodel, the blind orphan Fishke loves. She works at a menial job because she has too much self-respect to be a beggar, although we see others making a living as charity cases. The story takes place in a 19th century Russian shtetl, a small Jewish community, where the town leaders are more worried about personal religious projects than improving the actual living conditions, and whose solution to the cholera outbreak is deeply rooted in superstition. Mendele the bookseller is the all-around problem solver and bridge between the remote city leaders and the common people, tradition and reason.
That makes it sound fairly heavy, but there are more than a few scenes that lighten the load, keeping things very well-balanced. Since the film was shot on a tight budget, we get a few B-movie tricks (day-for-night scene). However, it's a nice story very well acted, and as an artifact of a long-gone film genre, it's priceless. That Ulmer directed a number of Yiddish films without speaking the lanugage is remarkable, and that they turned out as good as this is doubly so. Also, in the middle of everthing is one of the most remarkable scenes I've seen recently in a film (and this could be a spoiler, if you worry about such things). Getzel, a thief and all-around jerk, lies to Hodel that he saw Fishke with another woman. Paying attention to modern Hollywood as much as I do, I was surprised at the result: she confronts Fishke with the story, and not only does he tell her where he really was, but has witnesses, too. If Ulmer was a modern director, he'd know that a simple misunderstanding is supposed to be blown up to grotesque proportions, exacerbated by the community, well-meaning but clueless friends, the family dog, and all kinds of ridiculous circumstances. Instead, we get people being reasonable, which doesn't cut it for the 18-25 male demographic, the ONLY thing that matters anymore, as you know. The "solution" the town leaders come up with for the cholera outbreak is the closest to a ridiculous circumstance we get, but not in the comedy sense of the word; it's also based on tradition, so it's not a contrivance.
One of the reasons cable TV is still a useful thing to film fans is that the only way most of us will see films like this (besides at a film festival) is on late night cable. The only home video option for The Light Ahead is a $72 VHS tape. Good luck finding it at Blockbuster Video.
The Light Ahead, made in 1939, is anchored in the Yiddish theater of the early 20th century, and features a number of actors from the Yiddish Art Theater. So from that tradition, we get David Opatoshu, at the start of a long film and TV career, as Fishke, a crippled peddler, and Helen Beverly as Hodel, the blind orphan Fishke loves. She works at a menial job because she has too much self-respect to be a beggar, although we see others making a living as charity cases. The story takes place in a 19th century Russian shtetl, a small Jewish community, where the town leaders are more worried about personal religious projects than improving the actual living conditions, and whose solution to the cholera outbreak is deeply rooted in superstition. Mendele the bookseller is the all-around problem solver and bridge between the remote city leaders and the common people, tradition and reason.
That makes it sound fairly heavy, but there are more than a few scenes that lighten the load, keeping things very well-balanced. Since the film was shot on a tight budget, we get a few B-movie tricks (day-for-night scene). However, it's a nice story very well acted, and as an artifact of a long-gone film genre, it's priceless. That Ulmer directed a number of Yiddish films without speaking the lanugage is remarkable, and that they turned out as good as this is doubly so. Also, in the middle of everthing is one of the most remarkable scenes I've seen recently in a film (and this could be a spoiler, if you worry about such things). Getzel, a thief and all-around jerk, lies to Hodel that he saw Fishke with another woman. Paying attention to modern Hollywood as much as I do, I was surprised at the result: she confronts Fishke with the story, and not only does he tell her where he really was, but has witnesses, too. If Ulmer was a modern director, he'd know that a simple misunderstanding is supposed to be blown up to grotesque proportions, exacerbated by the community, well-meaning but clueless friends, the family dog, and all kinds of ridiculous circumstances. Instead, we get people being reasonable, which doesn't cut it for the 18-25 male demographic, the ONLY thing that matters anymore, as you know. The "solution" the town leaders come up with for the cholera outbreak is the closest to a ridiculous circumstance we get, but not in the comedy sense of the word; it's also based on tradition, so it's not a contrivance.
One of the reasons cable TV is still a useful thing to film fans is that the only way most of us will see films like this (besides at a film festival) is on late night cable. The only home video option for The Light Ahead is a $72 VHS tape. Good luck finding it at Blockbuster Video.
|| Eric 6:10 AM#
