The Younger Generation (1929)

The Younger Generation (1929)

„The Younger Generation“ is a 1929 romantic drama film directed by Frank Capra. The screenplay by Sonya Levien and Howard J. Green is an adaptation of the 1927 play „It Is to Laugh“ by Fannie Hurst.

Morris Goldfish, the son of a Jewish immigrant family living on Delancey Street in New York’s East Side, resides with his father Julius „Pa“, a pushcart pot salesman; his mother Tilda „Ma“, who toils in the kitchen all day long and resents her husband’s laziness; and his sister Birdie, who is in love with their neighbor Eddie Lesser.

Julius’ favorite child is Birdie, while Tilda’s favorite is Morris, who, she believes, will grow up to be a very successful businessman. Morris fights with his sister and then with Eddie over a piece of bread that his mother promised him for being a good son and making some money selling newspapers. The fighting results in an accident which sets their apartment ablaze, but Morris proudly tells his mother that he was able to salvage some valuables that they can now sell in a fire sale.

Years later, Morris makes a fortune as a successful Fifth Avenue antique dealer and is able to move his family into his swank uptown apartment. Tilda is comfortable in her new surroundings, but Julius is lonely and Birdie misses Eddie, now her sweetheart. Both admit that they are „a couple of Goldfish in the wrong fishbowl,“ and complain that they don’t laugh anymore.

Julius’ pride is hurt when Morris announces that he has changed his name to Fish in order to ease his assimilation into Park Avenue society.

Morris forbids Eddie to visit Birdie, but Eddie manages to see her long enough to plan an elopement with her. However, Eddie unwittingly becomes an accomplice to a jewelry store robbery and is forced into hiding. Eddie is jailed, but Morris is furious at the publicity, and evicts his poor sister. Morris keeps Birdie’s banishment a secret from his parents and intercepts all her letters to them, so that they worry for her safety.

Julius sets out to find his daughter, and learns she has a child and earned enough money to support herself while awaiting Eddie’s prison release. Morris humiliates Julius and Tilda when he addresses his parents as servants to avoid social embarrassment. Julius becomes ill. Morris softens at the sight of his father on his deathbed and summons Birdie to be with him, and for a brief moment the family is happily reunited. Following Julius’ death, Morris offers to comfort his mother with a trip to Europe, but she refuses and tells him that she is leaving to live with Birdie on Delancey Street, where she belongs.

Cast:

• Jean Hersholt – Julius Goldfish, Pa
• Lina Basquette – Birdie Goldfish
• Ricardo Cortez – Morris Goldfish
• Rex Lease – Eddie Lesser
• Rosa Rosanova – Tilda Goldfish, Ma
• Syd Crossley – Goldfish’s Butler
• Martha Franklin – Mrs. Lesser
• Virginia Marshall – Birdie Goldfish as a Girl
• Joe Bordeaux – Crook
• Paul Ellis – Crook
• Ferike Boros – Delancey Street Woman
• Leon Janney – Eddie Lesser as a Boy
• Julanne Johnston – Irma Striker
• Donald Hall – Minor Role
• Virginia Wiseman – Minor Role
• Bernard Siegel – Mr. Kruge
• Julia Swayne Gordon – Mrs. Striker
• Jack Raymond – Pinsky
• Clarence Burton – Police Desk Sergeant
• Otto Fries – Tradesman

„Junge Generation“ (The Younger Generation) ist ein romantisches Drama aus dem Jahr 1929 unter der Regie von Frank Capra. Das Drehbuch von Sonya Levien und Howard J. Green ist eine Adaption des Theaterstücks „It Is to Laugh“ von Fannie Hurst aus dem Jahr 1927.

Eine Soap-Opera über einen jüdischen Mann, der in der Gesellschaft aufsteigt, und seine Eltern aus der alten Welt, die untröstlich sind, weil er sie zurückweist.