The Pawnbroker
(1965)
Rusty: Below are links to reviews and further info from selected film sites. Links surrounded by a solid border lead directly to a page about this movie on that site. Links surrounded by a dashed border lead to a Google search for this exact movie title on that site. You may find it more efficient to open these links in separate browser tabs. Click Show More / All / Default to see more available links or return to the standard default selection. More (or fewer) choices of links can be selected via Options, and you can save your personal defaults (requires login).
The Pawnbroker is a 1964 drama film, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters, Jaime Sánchez and Morgan Freeman in his feature film debut. It was adapted by Morton S. Fine and David Friedkin from the novel of the same name by Edward Lewis Wallant. The film was the first American movie to deal with the Jewish holocaust from the viewpoint of a survivor. It earned international acclaim for Steiger, launching his career as an A-list actor, and was among the first American movies to feature nudity during the Production Code and was the first film featuring bare breasts to receive Production Code approval. Although it was publicly announced to be a special exception, the controversy proved to be first of similar major challenges to the Code that ultimately led to its abandonment. In 2008, The Pawnbroker was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".