Watch The House of Rothschild For Free

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Nunnally Johnson had just written comedies when Darryl Zanuck came to him and asked him to write a movie about the Rothschild family. Apparently actor George Arliss had been begging Zanuck for years to make a film out of the play "House of the Rothschild." Johnson wasn't sure at all that he was the man to write a serious drama about a Jewish banking family. He told Zanuck, ""All my characters are liable to fall in flour barrels"It turns out that Johnson was just the right man to do the movie. Nobody falls into any flour barrels, but Johnson added a great deal of humor to the story in nearly every scene. He doesn't hesitate to show the Rothschild patriarchs outwitting vicious anti-Semitic government officials and aristocrats and taking pleasure in it.Johnson claimed that he didn't use the play as a basis for his movie, but used a popular biography of the time. Not being Jewish (and neither were Zanuck or Arliss) he was able to make the film more openly pro-Jewish than a Jewish writer probably would have done at the time. The movie is also unabashedly pro-capitalist, but only in a liberal flavor. Capitalism is good because it gives people dignity and allows them to work for peace and equality.The film seems squarely aimed at countering Nazi propaganda that Jews were evil international conspirators responsible for the twin evils of socialism and capitalism. It shows Jews as smart people working both for the benefit of their countries and their families. One could say that Hitler got the last laugh as he used footage from this film to make the ugly Nazi propaganda film "the Eternal Jew." However, "House of Rothschild" was a great box office success (number one for 1934) and steeled a great number of people against Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda.Arliss is witty, endearing and excellent as two Rothschild patriarchs. Boris Karloff is sharp as a merely vicious, but not monstrous antagonist. Loretta Young and Robert Young add charm as a pair of lovers kept apart by their families because Loretta is Jewish and Robert is Christian. They bring a nice balance of personal love and sweetness to the drama that is mostly concerned with war, high finance and international power. I kept thinking that if Loretta Young had actually fallen in love with Robert Young and they had married, she would have become Loretta Young Young. Then I could have said a young Loretta Young Young played the young child of a Rothschild.Doubtless, this is an idealized version of the Rothschild family, but it was exactly what was needed to counter the vicious ideology of the Nazis in 1934. Don't miss and enjoy.

There were Eleven Nominations for Best Picture of the Year in 1934. This was One of them. The Decade did Love the Costume Drama and here it is the Beginning of the Rothschild Family who Eventually Became Masters of the Universe Bankers. The Period is the Napoleonic Wars.The Theme is Also Anti-Semitism a Time when there were Jewish Ghettos and the Chosen People could not be Choosy in Professions. Money was Their Power, as We are Reminded throughout the Film, and Oy Vey did They use it and at the Same Time Trying to Remain "Dignified".After a Stereotypical Beginning when the Bankers were just Babes, Grandfather Rothchilde Scurries about the House and Hides the Ledgers, the Silver, and the Beef Roast to "Cheat" the Tax Collector (this is justified because they were being treated unfairly and discriminated against, so all's fair in Love and Money).Things Move Forward Decades and the Rothschild Children are Now Bankers to Nations and They can Make or Break Countries, Wars, and People. The Movie is a Glossy Production that Glosses Over Any and All Flaws the Family Might have had for the Sake of Early Thirties Messaging to what was Happening in Germany at the Time (Nazis).Overall, Worth a Watch for Pre-Code Inclusions of Religion and Prejudice that would soon be Banned in Hollywood by Hays/Breen and for the Fine Acting of Richard Arliss and Boris Karloff.Note...Beware inferior murky prints floating about and be on the lookout for the original Three-Strip-Technicolor ending.

Excellent historical drama about one of the largest banking institutions in the world. A film about banking and the British stock market wouldn't normally be my cup of tea but this has other elements to it. Defeating Napoleon was central to the story. Money helps win war! And money got the Rothschild family out of the ghetto in 1790's Frankfurt in Prussia. I had no idea that ghettos and such intense hatred for the Jews went back that far. "Jew Street" was hell. Very sad. Anti-Semitism is another huge part of the movie. Hollywood thought this was good enough for an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and probably deservedly so!7.5 / 10 stars--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

By 1934 Hitler had been in power for one year in Germany and had already transformed the nation. How appropriate that this movie came out that year. With its theme of anti-Semitism in Germany and other nations from 1780 through the Napoleonic Wars, we have quite a good film here.As they did in Disraeli 5 years before, George and Florence Arliss again appeared as a married couple-this time as the Rothschilds.As the money lenders and banking financiers, there was so much anti-Semitism already in Prussia. (Let's remember that Germany did not become a unified nation until the Franco-Prussian War of 1871.) The film deals with the 5 sons and their banking interests amidst political turmoil, which further gave rise to anti-Semitism. The dilemma of the family was whether to support Napoleon who gave Jews basic rights in occupied countries, but never in France itself; or to go with the allies against Napoleonic tyranny, but again this would mean oppression for the Jewish people. The family was able to gain rights for Jews as a condition for supporting the anti-Napoleon forces.This is a very interesting film, way ahead of its time. Loretta Young co-stars as the daughter of the eldest Rothschild son. She loves a British Gentile played by a very young Robert Young. When he sees anti-Semitism around him, Arliss is vehemently opposed to the union.The film was nominated for best picture of 1934 but lost out to "It Happened One Night." I guess that Hollywood wasn't ready yet to honor pictures of discrimination.