Jew Suss

This adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger's novel Jew Suss was such a stinging indictment of the anti-Semitism then on the rise in Germany that the Nazis remade it in 1940, turning its hero into a villain to advance their propaganda. Hoping his influence can help Jews in the 18th-century ghetto of Wurttemberg, Josef "Jew Suss" Oppenheimer (Conrad Veidt, in one of his best performances) serves a duke whose corruption and lechery lead both men to ruin. Cedric Hardwicke costars as Suss' guilty conscience, Rabbi Gabriel.