Loyalties (1933) Starring Basil Rathbone 

And looking exactly the same as he did in the 1960s, as Alfred on the Batman TV show. Amazing!

There are numerous, precise and very clear reasons for anti-Semitism (mind I didn't say they were right). But nobody knows them, so people are left wondering, as if it was a non-sense. Same thing can be said about almost everything, such as the wars (Ukraine presently). By the way, Rathbone character (it's not Rathbone himself) presumably wanted to mix with other wealthy people because he wants to show himself, because he wants to assert that he can do it, because he needs their company for social or business reasons, because he enjoys living the same sort of life than they have, because of an overinflated vanity.......

Yes, an interesting film to be sure, and Rathbone, as always, brings a great performance (bordering on slightly comical at times). What I like about the film is that they don't exactly portray de Levis in a favourable light. He is every bit as petty and insufferable as the company he CHOOSES to keep. He's not a likeable person and is as two dimensional as any other character in the film when it comes to what he cares about; money and social stature. De Levis has a massive chip on his shoulder, probably due to the abuse he has suffered his whole life growing up as a Jew. It is almost as though he wants to prove a point about being able to rise to the highest levels of society and shove it in the face of those who would have been his tormentors growing up. The difference is that it is his Jewishness that is used to justify his character, rather than seeing him just as a human being with some undesirable personality traits, he is seen as a painful 'Jew', who is painful because of his Jewishness, and that is what anti-Semitism is; being unable to separate the human from the religion/culture. He is not just a man, he is a 'Jewish' man and this therefore bestows certain innate personality traits through the eyes of the anti-Semite. If he had been of Anglo heritage the whole scenario would have been seen through a very different lens. It still would have been ugly, but just portrayed in a different light.

An interesting analysis. I am not Jewish. My best friend ,when living in Canada, was Jewish and we had a deep brotherly affection for each other. We hardly ever discussed religious matters. When I left Canada we lost touch with each other, but I often look back at our friendship with warm feelings. He was my best man when I married a French Canadian lady- in a Roman Catholic church: all rather eclectic. Basil Rathbone was related to the Rathbone family of Liverpool, my home town.

@@brucejackson4219 No, I'm not Jewish either, but know Jewish people. Let's face it, unless you have been raised and/or indoctrinated into hating a particular group in society it is unfathomable to you how you could judge someone like that and hate them for it. As for Rathbone, I'm a huge fan. One of his younger fans (I'm in my 40s). I just love him and his work...and what a spunk LOL!

@@leishayoung4124 Thanks for this Leisha. Although not an addict to nor a fanatic of [English ? ] Holmes' stories, I started reading them when I was about 14 [ being many years before you were born] . The Rathbone renditions were my first introduction to Holmes' films and he remains my favourite actor of the character. I have some reservations as to the Nigel Bruce portrayals-but that's another story. I prefer each of the actors playing Watson in the Jeremy Brett series. I find many very thoughtful movies on RU-vid. I suppose my # 1 is M [Peter Lorre] But two other German films run this one very close , namely: 1 ICH KLAGE AN [1941] a very powerful film, full of angst. If you have not seen it, I suggest you have a box of Kleenex ready. The opening music is magnificent and was composed by the chap who wrote the music for the Lili Marlene song. An English sub-title version is available on archive .org 2 A movie [early 1940s ] about Robert Schumann- I can't remember the title: again, see archive.org for sub-titles in English. This is not a documentary. Schumann wrote my favourite piece of classical music [transcribed for piano by Liszt ]- namely WIDMUNG [Devotion/Dedication]. If you have difficulty tracking this film down, then let me know. You should have available any Kleenex you did not use [see # 1 above], since the ending of this second film is a 5* weepie. Take care of yourself. Bruce PS: I do not certify that this email is free of spelling & grammatical errors. No disrespect to you is intended. .PPS: just refreshed my memory. The Schumann film is TRAUMEREI...[Dreaming] 1943. good print with English sub-titles on website Lady of the Shroud

I don't know, I think he was something of a petty man with a big chip on his shoulder. We must also remember that he 'chose' his company, nobody forced him to associate with the upper echelons of society (and their bigotry). I don't think we're actually supposed to see De Levis in a terribly favourable light as a person, he would be quite insufferable to be around, especially if you were of lower class, he probably wouldn't want anything to do with you. The issue is that his chosen company seem to think it is his 'Jewishness' that makes him the way he is, rather than just seeing a flawed individual with a lot of hang-ups about, probably, the abuse he endured growing up Jewish. De Levis is a flawed character but it has nothing to do with his Jewishnes, it's just him, but in the eyes of the anti-Semite, it IS his Jewishness that makes him the way he is, and this is where bigotry begins and ends in ANY form; the idea that by virtue of birth this bestows certain innate traits that make them different from the bigot.

He was the victim at every turn in this story (he gets robbed, Dancy sues him, he gets suspended from his club while Dancy doesn't, the General doesn't keep his promise to him, etc) and he constantly gets treated as the villain. They blame him for Dancy's death. Does one single person apologize to him for shunning him when they find out he was right all along? No. Why? Because he's not one of them. To them he's just, as Dancy points out, a "damn Jew."