Just Screenshots: The Pawnbroker (1964)

The Pawnbroker (1964)

Sol Nazerman manages a pawnshop in Harlem, which provides him enough money to support comfortably his sister-in-law's family on Long Island and the widow of an old colleague. He is an emotionless and direct man, which makes him effective, from an economic perspective, in negotiating with his largely desperate customers as he has no feeling about their plight. Most of his pawnshop acquaintances are unaware that his abrupt and detached demeanor is a result of what he witnessed as a Jewish concentration camp inhabitant during WWII, those incidents witnessed including the rape of his wife and the murder of his family by their Nazi captors. What happens on the streets of Harlem often reminds him of incidents at the concentration camp, he shutting off his feelings from what he now sees to survive emotionally. Before the war, he was a professor, a term which he now views with disdain. He has just hired a young man named Jesus Ortiz to work in the shop. Jesus, who has led a life of petty crime up until now, sees this job and his association with Sol, who he sees not only as a boss but a friend and mentor, as his first step in turning over a new leaf. One person who suspects what Sol has gone through is the new welfare worker in the neighborhood, Marilyn Birchfield, who has her own reasons for trying to break through his defenses. His life takes a turn when he discovers the true nature of the pawnshop owner, Rodriguez, which, although a negative in the issue itself, at least allows him to feel again for the first time since the war. The question becomes what he is going to do about it, especially in relation to Miss Birchfield and Jesus. (IMDB Huggo)

Linda Geiser

Rod Steiger

Donnie Melvin

E.M. Margolese [L]

Nancy R. Pollock

Marianne Kanter

Jack Ader

Nancy R. Pollock

Nancy R. Pollock, Marianne Kanter and E.M. Margolese

Eusebia Cosme

Hilda Haynes

Juano Hernandez and Rod Steiger

Brock Peters

Geraldine Fitzgerald

Jaime Sánchez

Raymond St. Jacques, John McCurry and Charles Dierkop

Raymond St. Jacques

Rod Steiger

Warren Finnerty

Rod Steiger

Jaime Sánchez and Thelma Oliver

Charles Dierkop, Raymond St. Jacques, Jaime Sánchez, John McCurry and Thelma Oliver

Thelma Oliver and Jaime Sánchez

Baruch Lumet

Marketa Kimbrell

Linda Geiser

Reni Santoni

Jaime Sánchez and Eusebia Cosme

Juano Hernandez

Marketa Kimbrell

Thelma Oliver and Rod Steiger

Burtt Harris and Rod Steiger

Linda Geiser

After the filmmakers appealed to the MPAA's appeals board to oppose censoring the film, it became the first US film to show a nude woman from the waist up and be granted a Production Code Seal. It was the first of a series of confrontations between filmmakers and the MPAA in the 1960s that would lead to the abandonment of the Code within five years, in favor of a ratings system. (IMDB)