The Pawnbroker dir. Sidney Lumet (1964)
Rod Steiger plays a
Auschwitz survivor running a Harlem pawn shop who turns his
survivor's guilt against the people in his life. Lumet uses almost
subliminal flashback image to show how Steiger's Nazerman is haunted by his old
life. A surprisingly underrated film I only learned about through
Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris' fascinating book about the upheaval in
the film industry in the mid-to-late sixties. This film was one of
the first blows against the old fashioned production code. Steiger
gives a strong performance in a role very different from the sheriff
from In the Heat of the Night, which I also recently saw. Lumet
is as masterful here as he was in any other part of his multi-decade
carreer.
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