A Jewish pawnbroker, a victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.
Acting
Rod Steiger's face — a landscape of pain you can't look away from.
Direction
Lumet's flash cuts: memory as assault, not nostalgia.
Editing
Those sub-second Holocaust flashes still exceed every prestige drama since.
Director
Sidney Lumet
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rod Steiger prepared by visiting concentration camp survivors and refusing to break character between takes — cast and crew found him terrifying.
First US film with nudity to get Production Code approval; the brief breast shot was Lumet's calculated trade for the Holocaust imagery the censors fought harder against.
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