SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL | SFJFF 2010

Screens with Gambling Mensch

Part of Tough Guys: Images of Jewish Gangsters in Film

Joseph M. Newman’s King of the Roaring 20’s—The Story of Arnold Rothstein is a tale of ambition and the corruption of a nice Jewish boy. David Janssen (The Green Berets, TV’s The Fugitive) is Arnold Rothstein, the incorrigible gambler and bookmaker who later inspired Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. Rothstein is perhaps best known for allegedly paying members of the Chicago White Sox to “throw” the 1919 World Series. In this dramatic rendering, an Irish cop brings young Arnold home to his old-world father (Joseph Schildkraut), who turns to mother Esther and says, “This boy has a dybbuk in him.” Arnold hooks up with neighborhood kid Johnny Burke (Mickey Rooney) and together they embark on a life of crime. When press agent Harry Hecht (William Demarest) sets him up with the beautiful Carol Green (Diane Foster), he is smitten. Carol tries to resist his attention, but ultimately ignores the advice of her roommate Madge who quips, “When you’re married to a gambler, the only game you’ll win is solitaire.” Rothstein strategically navigates New York’s Democratic politicians, the police, the racetrack and the vicissitudes of love and luck. When he finally gets the royal flush he’s been waiting for his whole life, the stakes are higher than he could have imagined.—Nancy K. Fishman

Join us for the panel discussion on Tough Guys: Images of Jewish Gangsters in Film after the screening of Lepke on July 25 at 4pm at the Castro Theatre.

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