The Pawnbroker

Rod Steiger was nominated for an Academy Award for his controlled, masterfully internalized performance as Sol Nazerman, a Nazi concentration camp survivor who runs a cluttered pawnshop in Harlem that serves as a front for a local mobster. Based on the novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, this 1964 film directed by Sidney Lumet follows a few days in Sol's life, who survived his wartime ordeal (and the death of his wife and child) by becoming hard and unemotional, but begins to crack as events rouse suppressed memories that cut through his consciousness. Jaime Sánchez costars as Sol's garrulous, ambitious assistant, Jesus Ortiz, and Geraldine Fitzgerald is Marilyn, an insistent social worker who gently tries to break through Sol's shell. The scenes in the shop, with its steady stream of addicts, hookers, thieves, and lonely souls more desperate for contact than cash, resemble an off-Broadway play wearing social commentary on its sleeve; but when Lumet takes to the streets, the noise and bustle of Harlem energize the screen, offering an early glimpse of the director who would become one of the great chroniclers of New York City life. The rest is a time capsule classic with a well-meaning but dated take on race and crime that is elevated by Steiger's superb performance. The Pawnbroker has some racial epithets and was also the first American film featuring female nudity to receive a Production Code seal of approval. Re-released on DVD and making its Blu-ray debut, this is highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)