The Younger Generation (1929) User Reviews

Depressingly Downbeat Past-Talkie

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 18 September 2008]

Not a typical Capra film by any means (and one that will undoubtedly disappoint even his most steadfast fans), this Columbia part-talkie (copyright 18 March 1929) comes over as a film noir in every sense of the word. The overall mood is decidedly black. Despite the melodramatic story (the heroine's husband, played by Rex Lease, gives himself up to the police instead of seeing a good lawyer who could easily have induced a judge to dismiss the main charge and simply impose a fine for staging a street concert without a license), Capra and his slow-moving players act it out in an overwhelmingly realistic manner. The conclusion is one of the most depressingly downbeat ever! Nonetheless, the film offers a rare chance to see the legendary Lina Basquette at her zenith. Jean Hersholt enthusiasts will not be disappointed either, although I thought he way overdid the schmaltz. The player who came off best, in my opinion, was ever-reliable Ricardo Cortez, who not only succeeded in being perfectly reprehensible but added more than a touch of sympathy to his characterization. At the final curtain, when I saw him, back to the camera, sitting alone in front of the ornate fireplace in his huge but now empty home, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly sorry for him.

Early Capra film worth seeing

[murkbrown · 6/10 · 15 December 2009]

True this is not a typical Capra film as has been noted, but his hand is all over this thing. One has to keep in mind how early this was in Capra's career. It has the main elements usually found in his films, especially the lessons about what really matters in life. Papa Goldfish was not a successful man financially like his son was, but the reunion on the street when he goes back to his old neighborhood was very telling --- and touching. Other touching moments include not just Birdie's getting to see him before he dies, but also Papa's asking her, "Did you know I'm a Grandpa?" She runs to get the baby for him to see and lets the baby play on the bed next to him. Papa even asks the baby "Ain't you surprised I'm a Grandpa?" These, among many others, are all Capra touches. About the only thing missing was the villain managing to repent. But Capra's villains did not always mend their ways. Here the main difference was that it was the protagonist's own son who manages to muck things up. It's a good little film and I think Frank Capra fans will enjoy seeing his early work.

story of up-and-coming family on cusp of talkies

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 15 December 2009]

In this film, we see Morris Goldfish (Ricardo Cortez) bring success to his Jewish family, first as a young newspaper boy in New York City, and later a very successful, ambitious businessman. His mother (Rosa Rosanova) sees his skills, and encourages him, but the father and sister miss their old ramshackle home and old friends on the lower east side. This is one of the crossover films, where the soundtrack technology was invented while the film was being made. About halfway through the film, it switches from a silent film with title cards into a talking picture with sound track. Then it goes back to using title cards until the very end, with the final scene using sound again. Most of the cast had been making silent films for years, so they probably had to adjust to the sound portions. Good job by most of the cast. Papa Goldfish (Jean Hersholt) spends most of the film lamenting their new high-society lifestyle, and it gets annoying after a while. He won't even be happy when one of his kids gets engaged and married. We watch as Morris gets more and more successful, and he treats his own family very badly. Most of the story is told in dialogue, and after the big, grand opening, it looks like the rest was filmed in one room. This came out just before the big money crash of 1929, so we can assume that Morris will get what he deserves later, even if this story ends mostly on a sad note.

Nice Early Capra

[Michael_Elliott · 26 December 2009]

Younger Generation, The (1929)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Early Capra melodrama has poor Jewish family taken out of the ghetto by their youngest son (Ricardo Cortez) who strikes it big. He moves his father (Jean Hersholt), mother (Rosa Rosanova) and sister (Lina Basquette) into a large house and expects them to do what he says and stay away from the "filth" they grew up around. Soon the three start to realize that money can't buy happiness but will the son learn this before it's too late? At this point in time Columbia was still a very small studio so they couldn't afford to go all in in terms of sound movies so this is another example of a silent with a few sound segments scattered throughout the film. I've always found this to be incredibly distracting but I think Capra does a great job at when to use the sound and I also think the quality of the recorded words is among the best I've heard from this era. Considering how poor the studio was it's rather shocking that some of the other studios early talkies didn't come off sounding better. With that said, there are some major problems with the film but for the most part it's a nice time filler that fans of the director will want to check out. The biggest problem is that even in 1929 this material was way too predictable. There's really not a single thing that happens in the film that you won't see coming from a mile away. The format pretty much follows every morality film that came before it and I just wish at some point Capra would have shaken things up just to keep us off guard or at least in some drama. It should come as no shock that Capra does a great job with what's here and manages to keep the film moving quite fast and he keeps it as entertaining as the screenplay will allow. The cast also keeps things moving nicely with their fine performances. Cortez would play this type of role countless times in his career and he always managed to do good with it. Hersholt clearly steals the film as the tortured father. In the end, this isn't the greatest film ever made but I think Capra did the most he could considering what he had to work with. I think those who like to search out these early talkies will find the quality here to be above average and will make one wonder why some of the bigger studios didn't have their stuff sounding as good.

Capra with kreplach

[marcslope · 6/10 · 28 January 2014]

A young Frank Capra slips easily into a milieu you wouldn't expect him to have much feel for--the Jewish Lower East Side--in this early talkie, adapted from a Fannie Hurst novel. Hurst wrote soap operas that validated the feelings of the common woman, but here she's more intent on portraying immigrant Jews, a subculture most of America probably knew and thought little about, with dignity and empathy. And the histrionics are effective. Capra always had a way with actors, and he helps Jean Hersholt, as the stuck-in-his-ways paterfamilias, and Lina Basquette, as a feisty but sympathetic daughter, to their best performances. Ricardo Cortez is more of a natural as the son than you think--he was born Jake Krantz. The early-talkie format, with some scenes with dialogue and others with titles and sound effects, is awkward--if we can hear footsteps and doors slamming, why can't we hear dialogue?--and the not-too-happy ending, with the son punished for his acquisitiveness, is a bit of a downer. But it's loaded with atmosphere, and shows Capra learning his trade quickly.

early Frank Capra

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 10 September 2019]

Morris Goldfish grew up on New York's poor Lower East Side with his Jewish family. His father is a fun loving guy with all his friends but they don't have much money. The kids accidentally burn down their home but Morris fights to save their valuables. He uses the same tenacity to be a successful business and moves the family to rich Fifth Avenue. His father is tired of the stuffy social climbing from Morris and not happy being no longer the head of the household while mother and sister Birdie are overjoyed with their rise in status. Morris changes him name from Goldfish to Fish.

This is my earliest Frank Capra film. It is silent except for some synchronized music and some talking sequences. It's always fascinating to see incremental advancements in technology. This mix of silent and sound is a real platypus. It actually affects the tone and the style of the movie. Of course, all of that is beyond the filmmaker's intention. It's just the sense from a modern viewer.

The father son relationship is pure Capra. It's a familiar Capra theme of money don't buy you happiness. I love the path that the movie is going on until Birdie and her boyfriend become the nexus of the plot in the middle. It's too much. Quite frankly, Morris can simply kick Birdie out for marrying poor. The whole crime is contrived. The movie does go back to the father son relationship which is a good thing. The big climatic moment in the lobby is both effective and flawed. There needs to be something more obvious for Morris to deny his parents. In the movie, he's already suppose to introduce his parents to the upper crust guests during the dinner. It needs an extra push. It needs his guest to say something derogatory about them being poor. It's a great moment but it needs a better reason for Morris. Overall, the movie gets a bit too melodramatic. This is a great film for Capra fans and they would be very familiar with the theme.

Well executed melodrama...with SOUND!

[davidmvining · 7/10 · 12 January 2024]

Based on a play by Fannie Hurst, The Younger Generation might be Frank Capra's most personal film up to this point. We've had films that felt like he was just for hire (Submarine and both the Harry Langdon films) and films where he was saying what he wanted to say (pretty much everything else to one degree or another), but this almost feels somewhat autobiographical. Sure, Capra was Italian and not Jewish, but it's about the immigrant experience and the difference between people who came to America as adults and those who were raised on its streets. Well, Capra was raised on those streets and had parents who moved to America as adults (he emigrated from Italy with his family when he was five years old), so this just feels like it should be personal.

The Goldfish family is living on the East Side of New York City while the mother Tilda (Rosa Rosanova) tries to make a living, the father Julius (Jean Hersholt) makes jokes with his friends on the street corner, little Birdie (Lina Basquette as an adult) makes friends with the boy across the way Eddie (Rex Lease as an adult), and the boy Maurice (Ricardo Cortez as an adult) with a real drive for business. When Maruice gets into a fight with Eddie, Maruice accidentally hits the oil lamp above the stove, sending the apartment up in a blaze, but he's not put out by it. He'll make money from their leftover possessions, setting the stage for him to build an import art empire roughly fifteen years later.

The core of the film's story is the implied conflict between the younger and older generations, but it's not quite the simplistic battle of the ages that that implies. Instead, it's a conflict of visions that mostly manifests as the dramatic butting of heads between Maurice and Birdie since the brother is obsessed with status and position in his new life while Birdie has kept up her relationship with Eddie to the point that she wants to marry him.

It's interesting to see the big guy versus little guy dynamic manifest here within a family unit with Maurice becoming the big guy, losing sight of his own humanity, and pushing away everyone else while controlling them with his money, much to the chagrin of everyone else in the family, in particular Julius and Birdie who act like partners in crime. Things turn when Eddie, in a fit of desperation to be good enough for Birdie in Maurice's eyes (I think, this is thin and needs more, to be honest), he helps some local hoods knock off a jewelry story by riding up on the street and singing a song to offer up a distraction. It's a scandal that gets quickly found out, leading to Birdie rededicating her love to him by marrying him and Maurice kicking her out while preventing his parents from knowing that he'd done it.

Now, I should comment on the fact that this is Capra's first sound film. Well, partial sound film. I don't know the background for sure, but it seems like it was at least mostly filmed, The Jazz Singer came out, and they went back to film four scenes with the new sound technology. The transition from silent to sound is the most interesting period in film, in my opinion, and one measure of a director's ability to adapt to changing circumstances. John Ford failed it with The Black Watch while Ernst Lubitsch passed with flying colors in The Love Parade. Capra falls more towards the Lubitsch side, though being only a part talkie there are limits to what one can say on that front. I just want to note that the four scenes are dialogue heavy scenes (similar to Hitchcock's first effort at sound, Blackmail), but he films it like any competent dialogue scene from the later pre-Code period would be filmed, complete with dialogue cutting into shots with people who aren't talking, helping to blend shots confidently. It's surprisingly well done stuff, and it happens to be in a pretty good story to boot. In terms of part-talkies, it recalled the confident way that William Wyler approached it in The Love Trap.

Anyway, the film speeds towards its conclusion after the passage of two years with Eddie in jail, Birdie having his child, and Julius reaches a low point in his health without any contact from his beloved daughter because Maurice is tearing up her letters all leading to the kind of warm-hearted resolution that Capra was known for, though this is tinged with some pointed sadness. It's not entirely happy, Maurice's antagonism towards Birdie gets somewhat resolved but he can't be happy, not even with his money. And that points to what has quickly formed to be Capra's running theme: the little guys prioritize things that the big guys don't, but there are things to be learned across that gap.

It's not a great film, perhaps more interesting for Capra's first foray into sound more than anything else, but it's a solidly entertaining little melodrama that never elevates the material but executes it with some skill.

A Midas for the Jazz Age with a touch of the Jazz Singer

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 16 December 2009]

This film is one of the rare surviving goat gland films, that is, it's a part talkie. The film was made in 1929, and although more financially or technically advanced studios had graduated to all-talking pictures by now, poverty row Columbia was just beginning to work with the new technology. As a result, the film is split rather oddly into silent and talking portions, and it goes back and forth between talking and silent throughout the picture. However, it is very well done in spite of this. They must have had some trouble with synchronization, because often the speaking portions will have the speaker turn his/her back to the camera so you can't see that the sound is out of sync. Also, there is a song performed at a distance in which you can clearly see that the singer's lips and the song are out of sync.

Enough about the poverty row qualifications. The film itself is an excellent Frank Capra work about a Jewish family in a poorer section of New York City. Don't expect the optimistic Capra of later years here, though. The film is surprisingly downbeat although the Capra themes of the importance of family and the evils of chasing riches for riches sake shine through.

The film opens with Julius Goldfish (Jean Hersholt) selling from his push-cart. Actually, he's loafing and talking with friends and ignoring the push-cart. His wife Tilda (Rosa Rosanova) scolds him about his loafing and says he'll never get ahead. Meanwhile their children do not get along with each other. Morris, their son, is always looking for ways to make money, even salvaging stuff from a burning building in order to have a fire sale. Birdie Goldfish (as an adult, Lina Basquette) and Eddie Lesser (as an adult, Rex Lease) are childhood sweethearts. Ma Goldfish is always building up Morris' industry and ingenuity, and Birdie is Pa Goldfish's pride and joy, although Ma and Pa love both children.

Time passes, and the adult Morris (Ricardo Cortez) builds up the push-cart into a thriving antique business and moves the entire family to Fifth Avenue, not so much because he wants his family with him, but because you feel he would be embarrassed to have it known that his family is living on the East Side. Morris even changes his name to Fish to leave his Jewish roots behind and be accepted in the gentile social circles of upper crust New York City. To this end he tries to control the lives of his parents and his grown sister, even shooting disapproving looks at his dad whenever he wears his prayer shawl. Eventually Morris turns his parents into museum pieces and pushes his sister out of the family when her marriage to Eddie embarrasses him socially. The end is bitter-sweet with a final scene that is hard to forget.

Highly recommended as a touching dawn of sound film and a showcase of Capra's talents during this technologically challenging era when so many others were making either stiffly acted static dramas or ludicrous musicals in this transitional year of all-talking pictures.

Fish, of all things!

[jraskin-1 · 5/10 · 17 December 2009]

I just had the opportunity to see this film on our most valuable classic film resource, TCM. It was good to see, purely for historic purposes regarding Frank Capra's career. One good thing about the silent parts is that if you had taped or Tivo'd the film, you can scan the silent scenes at double speed and still follow the story. One curious thing (stemming from the original story) stood out for me though; if I wanted to change my name from Goldfish to a classier name, I would surely change it to Gold instead of Fish! After all, Samuel Goldfish changed his name to Goldwyn. I say, when in doubt, keep the Gold and lose the Fish!

An excellent portrait of a bygone era in the history of Jewish immigrants

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 20 January 2010]

THE YOUNGER GENERATION is a transitional film. In other words, it was originally a silent film but with the advent of sound in 1927, like many films in production it was held from release and hastily converted to sound. In some cases, such films were crudely overdubbed or all new scenes were added. Now it should be noted that most of these films were NOT 100% sound films, but bits and pieces of sound dialog were added here and there. This is even true to the groundbreaking 'sound' film, THE JAZZ SINGER--as most of the movie actually was still silent. By 1930, such practices were over in the US and films all films were 100% sound (with a few very rare exceptions, such as Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS). Interestingly, this conversion took many more years to take place throughout the rest of the world--with silents still predominating in China and Japan until the late 1930s.

This is an interesting film because it's one of the few times in which leading man Ricardo Cortez played a Jewish man. This is interesting because although he had a Hispanic name, this was not his real name--and he was, in fact, Jacob Krantz--Jewish through and through. I guess the studio thought it best, but it seems sad that he publicly pretended to be something he wasn't. But, back in the 1920s and 30s, being a Jew certainly was NOT an asset for a handsome leading man.

In addition to Cortez, the other interesting star in the film is Jean Hersholt. While this very prolific character actor may not be a household name, the Oscar's special award for community service was named after him, the Hersholt Humanitarian Award--as Hersholt was the man responsible for the creation of the actor's retirement home and hospital (among other such work).

The film is in some ways like a reworking of the recent hit, THE JAZZ SINGER. Like the JAZZ SINGER, this story involves a Jewish family and a son who violates tradition--much to the consternation of his father. In this case, Cortez becomes very successful in business and thinks that this means his family should pretend that their ethnic history does not exist. In other words, Cortez wants to be accepted by the rich folk and to do so, he wants to abandon his heritage--and changes his name from 'Goldfish' to 'Fish' (a common practice among assimilating Jews during this era). While he does bring his family with him to his new 5th Avenue home, he won't allow them to bring in their old friends and insists they act like rich Gentiles. He even drives his sister's boyfriend off as he's no longer 'acceptable'. While this is bad, it's made much worse because in addition to becoming a snob, Cortez really becomes a nasty jerk as well and it's really, really easy to hate him--especially when it comes to his treatment of his sister. Will Cortez see the light? Will his family continue to put up with the prison-like life he's given them? Will they finally just punch him in the schnoz and say "enough's enough"?! Tune in for yourself and see--though I'll let you know that Cortez' treatment of his parents becomes abominable...and rather heartbreaking.

Overall, it is very well done and is a wonderful little portrait of an America that no longer exists--the first and second generation Jewish immigrants. Now, much more fully integrated into the society, the Lower East Side is no longer Jewish and the tough life you see them leading is a bygone era. For history and social studies teachers and students, this is an excellent film--and better than its predecessor, THE JAZZ SINGER--even if it is awfully similar.

By the way, in many of these partly sound films, you may notice that the silent portions seem to move too fast. That's because silent films had no standard speed at which to run them (which varied from 16-22 frames per second) and sound always ran at 24 frames per second. So, when a silent portion is run through a sound projector, it is slightly sped up--giving it an odd sped-up look. The only times you don't see this is when quality VHS and DVD releases have the speed adjusted to the proper rate.

Lovely Lina!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 23 August 2011]

The plot line of immigrant children rejecting their culture to try to get ahead in the "new world" was quite common in the early 30s ("Unashamed" (1932), "Forgotten" (1933)) but almost disappeared with the introduction of the production code. Movie moguls (most of whom were Jewish) wanted to prove that they were "loyal Americans" and to squash what they felt was Jewish clannishness. Even Ricardo Cortez wasn't really Ricardo Cortez but Jacob Kranz, son of a New York Jewish butcher. He had been discovered for movies in the mid 1920s and given a more romantic sounding name in a bid to be a successor to Rudolph Valentino. This particular film plot sounds suspiciously like Universal's "His People" of 1925, complete with a scene in which the upwardly mobile lawyer son denies his parents at a party!!

Morris is the light of his mother's life but he is also a little tyrant and when Eddie (Leon Janney) sees him bullying his sister, Birdie, he crawls across from his tenement and they have a fight, which causes a fire. This results in their flat being guttered but resourceful Morris declares that with the items he saved they can now have a fire sale. Mama is proud but Papa (Jean Hersholt) philosopically declares that money can't but happiness.

As the years go by, thanks to Morris's shrewdness, the family fortunes rise from second hand dealers to a 5th Avenue antique store - although Papa can't forget the happiness of those "street corner days" with himself and his old cronies. Wealth has not made him happy, even the butler doesn't laugh at his jokes. Birdie feels the same and has carried on her friendship with Eddie (Rex Lease).

A "talkie sequence" follows, when Morris (Ricardo Cortez) says he has changed his name from Goldfish to Fish. "Goldfish is dead - long live Mr. Fish"!! Birdie declares. There is also a confrontation between Morris and Eddie when he comes to call. This sequence shows that all the leads had nothing to fear from the "talkies" - all of them spoke clearly but it did slow the film down somewhat. Eddie is desperate to get some money to marry Birdie and falls in, unknowingly, with a gang of crooks who want him to plug songs in front of a jewellers - while they rob it!!! With all this happening, Morris feels he has been disgraced socially - yes, it's all about him!! and he throws Birdie out - unbeknownst to Papa, who spends the next two years in a depressed state. Morris sees to it that he receives none of Birdie's desperate letters.

Even though Eddie is in jail, things are looking up. Birdie, who now has a baby boy, has sold one of Eddie's songs for $1,000!! After denying his parents (in a very poignant part, when they come home from celebrating becoming grandparents, he purposely mistakes them for servants) you know it is not going to end happily for Morris. At the end, even Morris's biggest champion, Mama, knows she will be happier living with Birdie and Eddie who, even though they have come up in the world, have never forgotten who they are - maybe Morris, who sits empty and alone, huddling in one of mama's blankets, may soon remember as well.

Lina Basquette was just terrific in this movie, as was Jean Hersholt. I found her a lot more believable in this one than "The Godless Girl". She was one star who really improved with talking pictures. 1929 should have been her year as she was in two very fine films but "The Godless Girl", even though a Cecil B. DeMille production was a silent and "The Younger Generation" was a silent with talking sequences. Very unusual in 1929 when silent movies were almost a thing of the past.

Simply outstanding part-talkie (3 short sequences)! Moral fable played out by Jewish family.

[mmipyle · 10/10 · 10 April 2021]

Watched "The Younger Generation" (1929) with Jean Hersholt, Lina Basquette, Ricardo Cortez, Rosa Rosanova, Rex Lease, Syd Crossley, and others. Concerning a Jewish family from NYC's lower east side. Directed by Frank Capra, this is silent with three short talkie sequences and a music and sound effects overlay otherwise. Hersholt is content in his surroundings, and loves to joke and laugh and be merry with fellow street hawkers, while his wife, Rosanova, wishes to move up and out of the life they're in. Son Cortez is already hawking newspapers and making money at a very young age, set to rise out of this life and onto Fifth Avenue. His sister, Basquette, is the apple of her father's eye, and she is enamored of a young harmonica player, Lease. He wishes to become a song writer. Cortez and he are at odds from early childhood. As years pass, Cortez becomes ultra successful and moves, taking his family with him, up to Fifth Avenue and tremendous wealth. But the happiness that was seemingly inherent in most of the family is now barred by a steely front of money and vapid social status. Eventually, Cortez actually snubs his family, calling them foolish servants in front of invited wealthy acquaintances so that he won't have to admit that they're his parents. His parents are shattered. The scene is shattering! The final scene, after several circumstances with Lease and Basquette in-between, is also shattering. How Cortez is situated at the end is monumentally shattering.

This moral fable is brilliantly executed by all involved. For me, this was the best performance I've ever seen Cortez give. I was bothered near the beginning with some of Cortez' hand placements which reminded me too much of stage performing and less of film acting. Other than that, the other performances are nothing short of great. The film, though possibly not for everybody, especially if you're turned off by moral fables, is revelatory for the period. It will instantly remind many of "His People" (1925) with Rudolph Schildkraut if any are familiar with that silent; they're nearly the same story, and, curiously enough, Rosa Rosanova is in both films. The film's Jewish circumscription is felt through and through, and Capra has obviously purposely made that choice. The ethnic aura makes the film even more compelling. The prayer that Hersholt prays near the end is supremely moving in context, and the resulting events are the threading of the needle sewing the coming tapestry.

Simply outstanding! The print was also nearly perfect, and the sound was actually well done for 1929. The talkie sequences don't necessarily add anything special to the film, but must have been very satisfying to audiences when the film was released. The sequences don't seem to be like other goat-glanded films of the era, but the sound is used in conjunction with the rest of the film. The final sequence before the very end scene is sound. The end scene itself, which is profoundly silent, is tremendously moving because of its silence. Highly recommended!

Silent/Talkie Hybrid from Frank Capra

[jimjo1216 · 13 August 2015]

THE YOUNGER GENERATION (1929) starts as a silent film, complete with synchronized audio track (for music and sound effects), but eventually lapses into an early talkie with spoken dialogue. The scenes alternate between silent and sound throughout the duration of the film. It's an interesting curiosity for film history buffs, as the movie was released at seemingly the exact moment when Hollywood transitioned from silent cinema to talking pictures.

The story is nothing groundbreaking. The Goldfish family rises from the cultural melting pot of the Lower East Side to Fifth Avenue high society, thanks to son Morris (Ricardo Cortez), a shrewd businessman who grows the family furniture store into a successful antiques emporium.

Morris rules his family with an iron fist, forbidding his sister Birdie (Lina Basquette) from seeing her childhood sweetheart from the old neighborhood. The ritzy Fifth Avenue lifestyle stifles Papa Goldfish (Jean Hersholt), who misses his friends from Delancey Street. Morris even legally changes his surname from Goldfish to the less-Jewish "Fish" in order to distance himself from his family's ethnic heritage.

As an early talkie, many of the line readings are a bit awkward, though Basquette handles the dialogue better than the rest of the cast (even Cortez). But even with her naturalistic delivery, the lines are often written awkwardly.

Still, the human drama pulls at your heart. Financial success brings misery to the Goldfish family. Morris is a real jerk, and everyone else in his house suffers as he climbs the social ladder. Cut off from her family, Birdie stitches together a happy little life with her songwriter husband, while Morris obsesses over his social position and leads an ultimately empty existence. Lina Basquette is pretty cute as Birdie and Jean Hersholt's performance is heartbreaking.