THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD (1934) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Alfred Werker
George Arliss, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young,
Robert Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Arthur Byron
Reginald Owen, Alan Mobray, Holmes Herbert
War and romance, banking and anti-semitism in a period piece set in Europe in the time of Napoleon. Produced while Hitler was seizing power in Germany, the movie has the eerie effect of looking back on the past while foreshadowing events that were just around the corner. Arliss gives a droll performance as the head of the Rothschild financial empire, and Karloff registers something close to pure evil as the murderous Count Ledrantz, a Prussian whose compulsive ruthlessness would not be out of place in the Third Reich.
