The Pawnbroker (1965) Queer Film A-

DIRECTION: Sidney Lumet

INITIALLY, REFUSED A SEAL OF APPROVAL BY THE PCA. The film’s Producer Ely Landau and his distributer Allied Artists were having none of this. They decided on a two-pronged approach: they would make arrangements for the film to be released without Hays Code approval – it was originally released in New York state under these conditions in 1964 – and it would appeal the PCA’s verdict to the Motion Picture Association of America (the same MPAA that would take over the rating system after the PCA’s dissolution in 1968). They won. The MPAA voted 6 to 3 to reverse the PCA’s verdict. The film was GIVEN THE HAYS CODE SEAL OF APPROVAL on its general US release in 1965. The ruling was one of a series of injuries to the Production code that would prove fatal within three years.

Sol Nazerman, (Rod Steiger) once a Jewish professor in Europe, now runs a pawn shop in East Harlem. Twenty‑five years after surviving the Nazi concentration camps, he lives emotionally numb, having lost his wife, children, and faith in humanity during the Holocaust. His life is marked by recurring flashbacks of the atrocities he witnessed, which intrude on his daily routine and keep him detached from everyday life.

The film follows Sol’s gradual unraveling as he realizes how his detachment harms those around him. His inability to connect or act compassionately leads to tragic consequences, ultimately forcing him to face the depth of his trauma and the cost of shutting out the world.

Rod Steiger is exceptional in what is, arguably, his greatest performance. He received the first of his two Best Actor Oscar nominations for this movie but lost out to Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou. He won two years later for In the Heat of the Night (1967).

With Geraldine Fitzgerald.

THE PAWNBROKER IS:

• FIRST AMERICAN FILM TO FEATURE A QUEER AFRICAN AMERICAN CHARACTER – BROCK PETERS*
• FIRST AMERICAN FILM TO DEAL WITH THE HOLOCAUST FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A SURVIVOR
• FIRST AND ONLY PCA-APPROVED FILM TO SHOW A WOMAN’S BARE BREASTS** ***

*Brock Peters’ character JOHNNY was neutered on his transition from book to screen in The L-Shaped Room. Peters made up for this two years later in The Pawnbroker where he plays the small but pivotal role of the mob boss Rodriguez, the man who controls Sol’s business. The L-Shaped Room even gets a Marquee cameo in the movie.

**The film was controversial on initial release for depicting nude scenes in which actresses Linda Geiser and Thelma Oliver fully exposed their breasts. The scene with Oliver, who played a prostitute, was intercut with a flashback to the concentration camp, in which Nazerman is forced to watch his wife (Geiser) and other women raped by Nazi officers.

*** One year later, in 1966, Vanessa Redgrave famously bared her breasts in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up. The film, distributed by MGM, was submitted to the PCA but denied a Seal. MGM then decided to distribute the movie without the approval of the Hays Office. It was an art-house smash and the final nail the Hays Code coffin.

Cinematography: Boris Kaufman

Screenplay by Morton S. Fine and David Friedkin based on the 1961 novel by Edward Lewis Wallant.

Music: Quincy Jones

Producer: Ely Landau – The Landau Company

Distributer: Allied Artists

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