Karloff lumbers through Karl Freund’s
dream-like film, innocence and brutality
warring within his massive frame
until a little girl plucks the amulet
from his chest and he falls
Leslie Howard plays the rabbi’s son
professor returned home from the big city
to shoulder his late father’s task
reawakening the golem
to protect his people
Howard is clean-shaven
elegant as ever in his smart suits
the ultimate English gentleman
but openly acknowledging his Jewishness
which some considered career suicide
“But why?” I asked my screenwriter dad
after I watched the film on TV
one Saturday afternoon
three decades after the Nazis
shot down Howard’s plane
“Those were different times,” Dad said
and told me how, in the 1940s
Harvard reneged on his scholarship
(they’d already fill
