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May 18, 2008
Who's the Jewish Movie Star? Take 5: Answer
Florence Vidor and Ricardo Cortez in The Eagle of the Sea, 1926.
The Jewish movie star is Ricardo Cortez (1899 - 1977) a handsome and talented leading man whose image, in the silent era, was sold to the public as a hot-blooded Latin lover.
In truth, he was Jacob Krantz, born in Vienna, the son of a kosher butcher raised in New York.
We had multiple winners this week, our movie-maven sisters Buttercup and Tamster correctly identified Cortez. After missing out on last week's quiz—Broncho Billy baffled everyone—they are back on course.
Al R., weighed in for the first time—welcome Al—correctly identifying our Jewish movie star.
Long time Seraphic friend, Toronto Pearl at first thought that Florence Vidor was Molly Picon, but then had a change of heart, and not only ID'd Cortez, but is the only reader to correctly identify the film as Eagle of the Sea.
Florence Vidor a beautiful belle from Texas was married to director King Vidor and most definitely was not Jewish. But after divorcing Vidor she married violinist Jasha Heifitz, so there you go—a Jewish connection with our lovely leading lady.
Mazal Tov to all our winners, and to those who didn't guess correctly, thanks so much for participating.
Now, to the reader who responded to our quiz with this charming missive:
“Their (sic) both Jews. Look at their hook Jew noses. You and you're (sic) Hollywood Jews, your (sic) people control Wall Street and we even know that John Mcanes (sic) real name is Rothchild. ”
Sigh.
This is not the correct answer and guess what, not only do we control Wall Street and Hollywood, but we also control the fillings in your teeth. And right at this moment we of the international Zionist conspiracy are shooting hostile laser beams directly into your so-called brain.
Okay, now let's take a look at Jacob/Ricardo.
One of the most interesting glimpses into Cortez's career comes from a 1965 interview Cortez granted to silent film historian Kevin Brownlow that is published in The Parade's Gone By. Brownlow was seeking information regarding director D.W. Griffith. Cortez had starred in Griffith's The Sorrows of Satan (1926).
Said Cortez:
I recall vividly making the The Sorrows of Satan. He [Griffith] took an awfully long time. I went to California for eight weeks and made Eagle of the Sea while he kept going with Lya de Putti, Adolph Menjou, and Carol Dempster.
Griffith was a strange sort of man—very quiet. There seemed to be an invisible barrier around him. You couldn't get near him. I was under the impression that he was a very lonely man—although I got to know him quite well. I felt terribly sorry for him and would visit him at his hotel—the Astor.
He would go out for a walk, and end up at the Pennsylvania railroad station, where he'd sit on a bench and just watch people.
During the making of the picture, I was playing in one of the attic scenes. We'd been working for six weeks, not getting very far, and for just thirty seconds I lost my temper.
He had said, “If you knew anything about acting you wouldn't do that.”
“I don't know a thing about acting,” I snapped, “which was why I wanted to be directed by you.”
Cortez was a leading star for a brief period during the silent era. His dashing good looks and Latin lover image catapulted him into competition with other Latin lovers of the era such as Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Navarro and Antonio Moreno.
In fact, Cortez was chosen to star opposite a new foreign actress studio chief L.B. Mayer brought to MGM and was grooming for stardom—Greta Garbo.
The Torrent, Garbo's first American film, is the only film where Garbo takes second billing, under Ricardo Cortez.
At the time, Cortez, 26, had been working non-stop in the movies for over four years. His stardom was such that he was considered a threat to Valentino. Cortez resented Garbo from the beginning. He was deeply annoyed at being made to star with this chubby “dumb Swede” who barely spoke a word of English.
Ricardo Cortez and Greta Garbo in The Torrent. Cortez treated her with disdain
and she almost sailed back to Sweden in despair.
The Torrent was a hit and Garbo clicked with the public—big time. Garbo never again took second billing, and as we all know, she went on to become the most popular actress in the world. Soon, Garbo had the clout to choose her own leading men, and Cortez never appeared in a Garbo film.
Meanwhile, Cortez was married in 1926 to the deeply troubled actress Alma Rubens. For a brief period, 1910 - 1920 the lovely, wide-eyed Rubens was one of the biggest stars of the silent cinema, but like so many early stars who came from broken homes and impoverished backgrounds, Alma had a self-destructive streak a mile wide. She succumbed to drugs—cocaine and heroin—and her marriage to Cortez was a nightmare roller coaster.
In our profile of Alma Rubens, we quoted from Ruben's lurid but historically important 1930 confessional This Bright World Again, serialized in newspapers and tabloids, in which the bitter actress outed her estranged husband:
Many persons who have followed my career on the screen and stage mistake me for a Jewess. This belief perhaps was strengthened when I married Ricardo Cortez, my third husband, the only one I ever really loved, and whom I am now trying to divorce.
Although I didn't find it out until almost a year after our marriage, Ric, instead of being a gallant Spanish caballero which I believed him, was the son of a kosher butcher, with a shop on First Avenue, New York City. His real name is Jacob Kranz.
Alma Rubens. Her marriage to Cortez lasted a short time.
Rubens was a drug addict given to erratic and violent behavior.
She died in 1931 at age 33, a casualty of narcotics and fast-living.
Obviously, Rubens (her father was probably Jewish) was attempting to damage Cortez's career. But by this time, sound had come in and Cortez, with his unmistakable New York accent, had been carefully shifted by the studios from Latin lover—the public didn't buy that story for long, anyway—into urban leading man roles. And the anti-Semitism that Ruben's felt sure would hurt her husband's Hollywood career never materialized.
Cortez's portrayal of detective Sam Spade in the original Maltese Falcon (1931) is an absolutely stunner. Cortez is far more dangerous and sensual than the lip-curling and deeply mannered Bogart. There's a great moment when Cortez suspects leading lady Bebe Daniels of stealing money and hiding it under her clothing. Casually, with an amused but sharp-as-dagger delivery, he orders Daniels to strip naked. The delight he takes in the bad girl's oh-so-shocked expression is just priceless. He's playing a game with her, but she knows it's a game with deadly consequences. It's a beautifully modulated performance—one minute silken, the next steel—and Cortez is in charge of every inch of the frame.
Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels, The Maltese Falcon, 1931.
On TCM a few months ago, I was very lucky to catch a little known Cortez film, Symphony of Six Million, AKA Melody of Life, (1932). Cortez plays a brilliant Jewish surgeon—is there any other kind—from the lower East Side, who, in his drive to build a “Park Avenue practice” forgets his family and his Jewish roots. Irene Dunne co-stars as Jessica, a girl from the old neighborhood who—get this—walks with a limp and teaches blind children braille. Irene Dunne, with her lilting Kentucky accent, doesn't even try affecting a Jewish accent. I think she sensed it was sort of hopeless. But Dunne doing Jewish—it's priceless.
Keep in mind that Hollywood did not make movies about Jews. Okay, there was The Jazz Singer, (1927) but really Jolson transcended ethnic boundaries. He was an entertainer—in black face.
Ricardo Cortez and Irene Dunne, Symphony of Six Million, 1932.
The title refers to the six million people in New York City, not to the
Holocaust, which had not yet taken place.
The studio heads, all Jewish, fanatically shunned movies with authentic Jewish themes. They were deeply self-conscious about their humble Jewish roots and wanted, more than anything else, to be full fledged Americans. For most Hollywood Jews—and for a vast number of American Jews—this meant shedding their Jewish identity, especially the religious Orthodoxy of their parents.
Which makes this film so unusual. It's the only Hollywood film I have ever seen where a Pidyon Ha-Ben, the Redemption of the First Born ceremony, is enacted. Although some of the Jewish characters are portrayed as stereotypes, as were members of any ethnic group in those days, what's lovely and unique here is that the Jewish characters are depicted as decent, hard-working people struggling upwards in the Goldenah Medinah, the Golden Country. The film comes down squarely on the side of old-fashioned values, where ritual, tradition and loyalty to family and friends take precedence over the blind stampede to assimilation.
Cortez appeared in over 100 films starring opposite Hollywood's greatest leading ladies: Bebe Daniels, Kay Francis, Barbara Stanwyck, Mae Clarke, Mary Astor, Helen Twelvetrees, Joan Crawford, Loretta Young, Carole Lombard, and Bette Davis.
As he aged, Cortez was downgraded from leading man to character actor. His last appearance was in a 1960 episode of Bonanza, El Toro Grande, where Jacob Krantz AKA Ricardo Cortez played—you guessed it—a Mexican, Don Xavier Losaro.
Cortez retired from the screen before he was relegated to a has-been status—smart move—and built a successful career on Wall Street. His many fine performances and long list of credits should afford him a prominent place in the pantheon of great Hollywood actors. But I'm afraid that our celluloid memories are short and Cortez is all but forgotten.
Ricardo's younger brother, Stanislaus, became cinematographer Stanley Cortez, (1908 - 1997) whose best credits include The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Night of the Hunter (1955), and The Three Faces of Eve (1957).
Near the end of his career, a Hollywood committee approached Stanley Cortez wishing to honor him as a prominent Hispanic American in the film industry. With some amusement, Cortez explained that he was Stanislaus Krantz—a Jew who felt it would be easier to move upwards in American society as a Hispanic.
Both brothers are buried in Jewish cemeteries.
Poster for The Torrent starring Ricardo Cortez and
Greta Garbo. The only film where Greta Garbo gets
second billing.
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Posted by Robert J. Avrech at May 18, 2008 01:46 PM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
“Their (sic) both Jews. Look at their hook Jew noses. You and you're (sic) Hollywood Jews, your (sic) people control Wall Street and we even know that John Mcanes (sic) real name is Rothchild. ”
This is one sic (sic) puppy.
Posted by: kishke at May 18, 2008 04:22 PM
Kishke:
And I just quoted the coherent section of the rambling e-mail.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 18, 2008 05:49 PM