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Overture to Glory poster
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Overture to Glory

1940 Movie Drama

A humble cantor, Oysher yearns to be an opera singer. He deserts his tiny village to pursue his dream, but when his voice breaks he sheepishly returns, resigned to attending but not singing at the Yom Kippur services. Upon his return, Oysher is informed that his son has died. Out of grief is wrought a miracle: Oysher's voice returns, more powerful than ever. After performing the Day of Atonement services, Oysher suddenly collapses, peacefully joining his son in death. If you wish to see the touching Overture to Glory, by all means seek out a decent print; many extant copies are so washed out that, not only are the English subtitles unreadable, but it's extremely difficult to tell one actor from another.

Same cast & genre

13 Shares actors and at least one genre with this title
Singing in the Dark poster
FILM

Leo, a holocaust survivor who suffers from total amnesia, comes to the U.S. and works as a hotel desk clerk. One night while a comedian who owns a bar in the hotel gives him a drink, he breaks out in song and discovers a great voice. Under a psychiatrist's treatment, and because of a blow to the head by some hoodlums, he realizes his name is David and that he was the son of a great Jewish Cantor, and gradually recovers his memory of losing his parents. He gives up a promising career singing in nightclubs to return to the synagogue.

Singing in the Dark

1956 Music
The Light Ahead poster
FILM

The Light Ahead is possibly the greatest of Edgar G. Ulmer’s shtetl films. Here, the director counterpoints his pastoral Green Fields to criticize the poverty and superstition that oppress a pair of star-crossed lovers. Made on the eve of World War II, The Light Ahead is at once romantic, expressionist, and painfully conscious of the danger about to engulf European Jews. Impoverished and disabled lovers Fishke and Hodel dream of life in the big city of Odessa, free from the poverty and stifling old-world prejudices of the shtetl. The benevolent and enlightened bookseller Mendele helps them, turning small-town superstitions to their advantage. Based on Mendele Mokher Seforim's story of love frustrated by small-town ignorance, this luminous allegory of escape marries Edgar Ulmer's masterful direction with superb acting by members of New York's Artef and Yiddish Art Theaters.

The Light Ahead

1939 Drama
The Singing Blacksmith poster
FILM

Moishe Oysher, the renowned cantor and star of Yiddish radio, stars in Edgar G. Ulmer’s musical version of David Pinski’s play Yankl der Shmid. Singing, dancing, and flashing his eyes, Oysher gives his most robust performance as a passionate shtetl blacksmith who must struggle against temptation to become a mensch. Recently rediscovered footage makes this the most complete extant version of Ulmer’s lively folk operetta, replete with an example of Yiddish swing.

The Singing Blacksmith

1938 Drama
Motel the Operator poster
FILM

Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

Motel the Operator

1940 Drama

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10 Ranked across franchise, crew, cast, themes, genre, era and audience scores