Protection, I'm giving you up—correction, I'm saying that I'm right enough

[sovay]

Carrie Rickey's "Hollywood: Where Jews Don't Get to Play Jews" is a very good article about exactly the phenomenon the title describes: the venerable Hollywood tradition of casting non-Jews to play Jewish characters, of which the flipside is all the Jewish actors you wouldn't know from their changed names. She calls it "Hollywood's Jewish Paradox" and ties it to anti-Semitism and the Production Code, Henry Ford and Joseph Breen, the Jewish studio moguls' fears of the perception of undue Jewish influence. It's part of the reason The Ten Commandments (1956) is such a surreal experience and Out of the Fog (1941) stings so badly and I remain grateful and amazed that a movie like The Heart of New York (1932) even exists. I recommend reading. There's just one point I wish she had articulated a little more:

It may seem counterintuitive, but Darryl F. Zanuck, the one Gentile studio chief, was committed to making films about Jews.

I have noted the issue before and I am hardly the first to feel it: that part of being accepted as a Jew in a majority non-Jewish society is not talking about anti-Semitism. Agree it's a problem when disinterested goyische parties point it out. Otherwise it's that special pleading that Breen complained about with Crossfire (1947), it's playing the Holocaust card, it's stealing attention from really marginalized people. So it's not counterintuitive at all. It was safe for Zanuck to make movies about Jews because he wasn't one of them. He wouldn't be accused of tribalism, of exploiting his control of Hollywood to advance his people's agenda. He could rock the boat without being ascribed ulterior motives. Rickey alludes to these forces earlier in her article: "Given this charged atmosphere, no Jewish mogul wanted to make his studio, his movies or his religion a target for attacks. Jewish producers worried that movies about Jews would incite anti-Semitism. Thus Jews as Jews on screen were almost invisible, and Jews played by non-Jews scarcely less so." I just wish she'd drawn the link to the latitude afforded Zanuck—and non-Jewish actors, playing ideas of Jewishness with no danger of being reduced to the real thing—a little more strongly. I mean I still want to have seen Defiance (2008) with Jason Isaacs. The next person who tells me that Call Me by Your Name (2017) wasn't groundbreaking had better have a list of big, sweeping, non-Holocaust, non-Orthodox, non-tragic queer Jewish romances to back it up.

Comments

[asakiyume]

part of being accepted as a Jew in a majority non-Jewish society is not talking about anti-Semitism.

Yes: the majority (as an abstract whole, obviously there are always some #notall cases) never likes to be criticized and never likes to acknowledge its wrongs.

The majority demands certain terms of engagement, and those terms, unsurprisingly, tend to maintain the status quo and neutralize anything even remotely threatening.

[sovay]

The majority demands certain terms of engagement, and those terms, unsurprisingly, tend to maintain the status quo and neutralize anything even remotely threatening.

I woke up and saw this ruling. This is not even maintaining the status quo. This is going backward. Increasingly I feel the message of this administration to anyone who is not its chosen splinter of self-identification—who behave simultaneously like an embattled minority and the coast-to-coast default mainstream—is be grateful we allow you to escape with your lives. And sometimes not even then.

[asakiyume]

I only just saw that ruling now. Profoundly depressing.

[gwynnega]

I will probably spend the rest of my life discovering that various Hollywood actors who changed their names were Jewish. (Only last week did I learn Hedy Lamarr was Jewish.) Oddly enough, when my mom used to do phone work in the seventies, she called herself "Garfield" just like John Garfield did!

[sovay]

I will probably spend the rest of my life discovering that various Hollywood actors who changed their names were Jewish.

Same! I knew about Hedy Lamarr, but I learned last week about Winona Ryder. There's a sense in which I am no longer surprised and a sense in which it feels like a discovery each time. It is also weird to me that it still happens, but I agree that it happens less programmatically now. It does change things.

Oddly enough, when my mom used to do phone work in the seventies, she called herself "Garfield" just like John Garfield did!

I kind of love that. It feels like the correspondence between a Hebrew name and a secular name. A lineage of use-names.

(swan_tower posted recently about language as magic and the power of true names and that was one of the places my brain immediately went.)

[sovay]

I only just saw that ruling now. Profoundly depressing.

Kara Hurvitz who does the weekly national news roundups has just posted, "To be clear, since I'm wrapping up analysis on the opinion now, the actual results of this case are not as bad as commonly feared, and the precedent created by it is pretty legally useless for a variety of reasons," which is nice to hear. But she also acknowledges that people are anxious and upset and have reasons to be.

I blew right past your comment as related to the original point of this post. Once again I wonder what the majority would have been able to demand of Hollywood without the Production Code. It told America what normal looked like for so long that some of us still believe it. Normal was an absence of a lot of things.

[muccamukk]

Zanuck also had a habit of wandering around acting like he was the first person on Earth to have considered that anti-Semitism was a thing, in conversation with his Jewish co-workers, which I'm surprised didn't get him murdered in his bed (I'm not actually surprised, but STILL...)

Everyone mostly seems busy freaking out about how CMbYN is paedophilia somehow. I need to get around to seeing it.

[niqaeli]

I wonder a lot what we might have had without the Code, but I find I'm never sure how right those in Hollywood who thought that if they didn't self-censor they were going to be dealing with an unmanageable nightmare of 50 different state censorship boards all with different standards (they were already dealing with something like 11 at the time), and perhaps a federal censorship board to boot, were.

And -- even if they were right, would that really have been worse? How much worse? I mean, we're never going to know, because they did what they did and then handed over the gatekeys to fucking Joseph Breen. But I have a hard time even imagining what film-making would have looked like in this country if they'd never implemented it so effectively.

My feelings on Joseph Breen are, as I suspect you sympathise, unprintable; not because I would censor myself, but because I can't actually articulate my rage into words.

[sovay]

Zanuck also had a habit of wandering around acting like he was the first person on Earth to have considered that anti-Semitism was a thing, in conversation with his Jewish co-workers, which I'm surprised didn't get him murdered in his bed

I had not realized that scene between Phil and his secretary in Gentleman's Agreement was roman à clef. Oh, man. I share your surprise.

Everyone mostly seems busy freaking out about how CMbYN is paedophilia somehow. I need to get around to seeing it.

I recommend it! I saw it in March with rushthatspeaks and barely wrote about it and loved it. The age difference concern feels mostly like trolling to me, especially since it's addressed directly and not lampshadingly in the script.

[ethelmay]

Huh. I'd have thought a lot of people would just have assumed Zanuck was Jewish anyway. At least it's not a name that screams "Gentile" to me, but that may just be my ignorance.

[muccamukk]

I know that the boardroom scene was almost word for word. I'm less sure about the secretary, but I would not be surprised. He must have been fun to work with!

I need to see it. There are so few gay movies at all, let alone period ones with happy endings. Haven't been watching much lately.

[sovay]

Haven't been watching much lately.

I hope you get a chance to catch up soon. How's your ankle?

[muccamukk]

It's better, or Work Safe thinks it is anyway. I mean, I was off for three weeks, so I COULD have watched movies, but what I DID was watch Band of Brothers 5 consecutive times and write a lot of fan fic, lol.

I did see Race, which was... certainly interesting and oddly Canadian.

[sovay]

but what I DID was watch Band of Brothers 5 consecutive times and write a lot of fan fic, lol.

Sounds like a valid use of time to me.

What is Race?

[muccamukk]

It's a biopic of Jesse Owens, focusing on the 1936 Olympics. The cast was good (a bunch of no-name Canadians plus Jeremy Irons hired to be morally ambiguous). I'm not sure how I feel about the portrayal of Leni Riefenstahl, who seems have had her antagonism with Goebbels played up in order to sanitise her? A bit? It was otherwise fine, standards sports pic.

I also saw the one where Gregory Peck gets amnesia (no the other one), which was very silly. Mirage?

[batdina]

I'm fascinated. I have a lot of movies to watch.

As an aside here, I once upon a time taught an elective at a Jewish high school on Jews on television. Starting in the 90s, give or take, Jews did start playing Jews. Numbers is a great example in that all three Jews in the central family were played by Jews. Homicide, and then Law and Order (same roll, same actor) is another.

On the other hand, I've had a variation on the drinking game called "Judaism: Good or Ill. I take a whatever every time there's a "Jewish" story-line, and they get it completely wrong.

I get hammered fairly often.

Again, lots of movies to watch.

[sovay]

It's a biopic of Jesse Owens, focusing on the 1936 Olympics.

Neat. I hadn't known that was happening. I agree that I don't tend to think of Riefenstahl as one of the good guys.

the one where Gregory Peck gets amnesia (no the other one)

I'm delighted that has to be disambiguated.

[sovay]

But I have a hard time even imagining what film-making would have looked like in this country if they'd never implemented it so effectively.

That's one of the reasons I love and watch and pursue pre-Code movies, because they are as close to that alternate universe of film as we are going to get. (We're not it. We are still not out of the shadow of the Code. I worry, especially now, that we never will be.) Sometimes they are brilliant. Sometimes they're weird. Sometimes they're awkward and sometimes they're not at all good. But they feel more like the world that really existed—that still exists—than the white picket fiction of the PCA. Some of this reality leaks through into other movies of the Code era and I treasure it wherever I can find it: there's a lot in film noir. Individual movies in other genres. I just watched Battleground (1949) last night and the first thing I said to spatch afterward was, "That was more like a pre-Code war movie than any other movie I've seen about World War II." But it's like panning for gold in a field of polonium. It hurt this country to this day. And I agree with you: state-by-state censorship boards might have been a logistical nightmare, but I am not sure they would have been the same moral one.

My feelings on Joseph Breen are, as I suspect you sympathise, unprintable; not because I would censor myself, but because I can't actually articulate my rage into words.

Yes, that makes sense to me.

Have we spoken before? If so, I apologize for not recognizing your handle. If not, pleased to meet you!

[sovay]

At least it's not a name that screams "Gentile" to me, but that may just be my ignorance.

No, I see why you say that; it's a Germanic-looking name, which often means Ashkenazi. I think his reputation as the sole non-Jewish studio head may have preceded the sound of his name.

[niqaeli]

(We're not it. We are still not out of the shadow of the Code. I worry, especially now, that we never will be.)

Oh, god, this is very true. I admit I laugh bitterly when people say the Code is gone. No, it isn't gone at all; we only escaped the formal process of an actual seal. What we've got now is worse in a few ways, at least, and certainly not better across the board, and well. Post-Code Hollywood is, I think, about like post-modernism. It can only exist or be understood in the wake of the thing that it followed. A world in which there is no shadow cast by the Code would be something entirely different altogether.

(And, yes, clearly I really need to watch more pre-Code movies! I have long wanted to watch more of them, but my brain has unfortunately not cooperated a bundle on watching live action the last few years.)

Have we spoken before? If so, I apologize for not recognizing your handle. If not, pleased to meet you!

I don't actually recall how directly we have spoken or not, previously, to be honest! But I'm in yhlee's comments on a regular basis, and I have often found you very interesting and sage over there. :)

[sovay]

I'm fascinated. I have a lot of movies to watch.

I am happy to have increased your watchlist!

As an aside here, I once upon a time taught an elective at a Jewish high school on Jews on television.

That's really cool.

Numbers is a great example in that all three Jews in the central family were played by Jews.

Yes! I enjoyed that. I have not seen much of Homicide beyond the crossovers with Law & Order, but I watched an enormous amount of Law & Order and I remember when I recognized that Lennie's ethnoreligious background matched Jerry Orbach's own. What other shows were you looking at?

I get hammered fairly often.

It sounds hazardous. If you include opera, I warn you in advance about the Passover scene in Halévy's La Juive. Nobody in the history of Judaism has ever held a Seder that sounds like that.

[sovay]

Post-Code Hollywood is, I think, about like post-modernism. It can only exist or be understood in the wake of the thing that it followed.

That's a very good way of articulating it. With the weird twist that the Code itself was so inescapable, it became invisible; most people have no idea how carefully it shaped America's image of itself: it just looks like "America." I had very little idea until about ten years ago, when I fell into the pre-Code careers of Richard Barthelmess and William Wellman simultaneously and it was like the top of my head lifted off.

A world in which there is no shadow cast by the Code would be something entirely different altogether.

Yes. And I would very much like to have known what it was like.

(And, yes, clearly I really need to watch more pre-Code movies! I have long wanted to watch more of them, but my brain has unfortunately not cooperated a bundle on watching live action the last few years.)

I have not written about as many pre-Codes as I've seen, but these should be all of the ones I've reviewed for my Patreon:

Mystery of the Wax Museum (1932)
Baby Face (1933) with Heroes for Sale (1933) and Wild Boys of the Road (1933) in comments
Night Nurse (1931)
The Lost Squadron (1932)
The Last Flight (1931)
Dracula (1931)
Roar of the Dragon (1932)
Fast Workers (1933)
Twentieth Century (1934)
Lady with a Past (1932)
Gold Diggers of 1933 plus Dames (1934)
Wonder Bar (1934)
a triple and a half feature of Wheeler and Woolsey
The Ghost Camera (1933), British quota quickie
Girl of the Port (1930)
Way Out West (1930)
Speak Easily (1932)
The Heart of New York (1932)
Hell's Angels (1930)

Plus a couple I wrote about pre-Patreon, probably more lost to the depths of LiveJournal:

pre-Code marathon notes
Picture Snatcher (1933)
Captured! (1933)
White Zombie (1932)

No obligation to watch or even read, but I think that's the bulk of my contribution to the literature. rydra_wong has also done some great writeups.

But I'm in yhlee's comments on a regular basis, and I have often found you very interesting and sage over there.

Thank you! I note you say intelligent things likewise.

[zdenka]

Yeah, I was disappointed in La Juive. I was hoping for it to feel more like actual Judaism, and it didn't. (Like, I expect the Judaism in Nabucco to be pasted on yay, and that one wraps around to me finding it slightly hilarious, but I was hoping for better from a Jewish composer.)

[sovay]

(Like, I expect the Judaism in Nabucco to be pasted on yay, and that one wraps around to me finding it slightly hilarious, but I was hoping for better from a Jewish composer.)

To my knowledge, the author of the libretto was not Jewish. Which is not much of an excuse for it reading like he never met a Jew in his life, since he was working with Halévy, but I've always assumed that was the explanation. That opera is such a fascinating combination of legitimately famous music and WAIT NO STOP GO BACK.

(I saw a Met production with two friends in 2003. It was an experience. It was not Neil Shicoff's fault that he had bronchitis and dropped out right before "Rachel, quand du seigneur," and it was not the understudy's fault that he was short and round where Shicoff was tall and thin, but the substitution was still about as awkwardly accomplished as possible. The set design was absolutely somebody's fault and I hope they still feel bad. It was black and white and so steeply raked that we genuinely worried about the singers slipping off and landing in the orchestra. The conceit of placing the Gentiles above and the Jews below produced the impression that Eléazar's family was living in the Emperor Sigismund's basement. The costuming jettisoned fifteenth-century Konstanz entirely in favor of Nazi Germany complete with yellow stars but also for some reason eighteenth-century Austrian guardsman everywhere. And we could find no other way to interpret the finale except that the eponymous Jewish maiden was killed by Klansmen in a pot of stoplights. At least it gave us something to talk about on the train back to New Haven.)

[kore]

Yeah, even if it's not actually legally that damaging, as people much more in the know than me seem to think, it's terrible as hell for morale. Like most of the fucking stuff this administration does. So much of it is a lot of horrible sound and fury designed to terrify and cow people, and distract us too while even nastier work goes on uninterrupted under the surface. It's so demoralizing.