Sons Of Liberty

Sons Of Liberty

Sons of Liberty is an award-winning short film based on the little known life of Haym Salomon, the financial supporter during the American Revolution.

In early Hollywood days, it was unusual to see the Jewish synagogues on screen. The earliest studio heads did not make their Jewish beliefs evident on screen. Even in The Life of Emile Zola a movie where antisemitism came up rather strongly the film makers never mentioned, ‘Jew’ or ‘Jewish,’ even once. However, it was during the 1930s that Warner Bros. was pushing their Americanism shorts.

There were short films about Patrick Henry, the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Abraham Lincoln. Maybe it’s because of the Warners being Jewish, but they made a short film on Salomon as well which had a part set in a shul on Yom Kippur no less. It is 20 minutes long but it won an Oscar nearly a half-century ago. The Opposition is now being shown in TCM together with The Adventures of Robin Hood as this channel is showing clip cuts created by M. Curtiz.

Though this movie may be in two parts, it does not seem to be so. For one, the use of Technicolor within the film gives out a quite clear impression that the studio in this case is making sure to spend a decent amount of cash in the making of the film. All set pieces and so on, it is not a low cost production.

That was the case with all the Americanism shorts by Kaiser too despite the fact that the costs were never recouped. It only goes to show the lengths to which the Warners were ready to go in furtherance of the quintessential American values. The ideals of freedom and liberty are embedded throughout the short films and remain key themes.

Salomon’s parents were expelled from Portugal and he was born in Poland. Then he moved to England and later reached New York in 1772. In America, he was able to build a life for himself While serving as along with George Washington numerous spies (in this instance, Montagu Love), Salomon collaborated with Robert Morris (Moroni Olsen) and raised funds for the American Revolution from various military exploits.

However, after all the fundraising Salomon was 45 years old at death at which time he was quite destitute. The film takes advantage of the fact that he was completely overlooked after his demise, so he was eventually remembered and recognized his merits. Even today, this one is available with the Warner Archive Collection release of Dodge City.

Larry Williams acts as an uncredited Nathan Hale. Hale, inquires Salomon if he knows Psalm 23. Salomon, who is already in a reciting mood, is then joined by Hale and together they recite the psalm. It is at this point that we find out that one of the first American spies is about to be executed by the British.

Crane Wilbur seems to have done this for the sake of drama in fact for the sake of the dramatic shul sequence. They are entertaining as sets but they probably don’t reflect reality. Perhaps they were in jail together. Probably not. Salomon himself, however, survived imprisonment and almost certain death to return and continue to fight for liberty.

Curtiz directs the film for Warner Bros. He only spent a week directing the film. But then again, even after spending just a week on the project, everything looks like it was made with a feature-length budget in mind. Whether it is the sets or cast, the studio really invested its money on the project, more so than any other short film in the Americanism series.

There is without a doubt some such elements in the movie which ages badly and that’s you Montagu Love. Oh yes, Claude Rains, who is of British origin, is, to my knowledge, also not a Jew. It’s unfortunate that Paul Muni rejected the role that would have placed him in the centre of a full-length biopic. Hell, even John Garfield could have probably done a good job. One would think that this is a systemic pattern within Hollywood, Jew roles don’t have to be played by Jew actors and this is still the case. Gale Sondergaard, who stars as Rachel Salomon is also not Jewish.

Leo F. Forbstein serves as the film’s musical director. Howard Jackson is also the one who composed the score but is not credited. As the film comes under the Americanism short films category, it is expected that the soundtrack also follows that line. During the opening titles, the United States National Anthem “Yankee Doodle” features, which is repeated later in the movie.

Haym Salomon may not be as well-known as his contemporaries, George Washington, John Adams, or Thomas Jefferson, but as Sons of Liberty is quick to point out, he belongs at their level. The 20 minute short could probably be described as the greatest effort to date in terms of how one would adapt Haym Salomon’s life for a feature film.

For more movies Visit Gomovies.