JUD SUSS (1940)

Setting the Scene
The film opens with the strangeness of the Jewish wailing and the image of the Pentangle. A new Duke to rule over Wurttemberg is being sworn in. His name his Karl Alexander.

The film begins in 1733 in the town of Stuttgart in Wurttemberg. There is the contrast between the roughness, darkness, and shady characters with their hair in dreadlocks, beards and kaftans, in the Jewish ghetto with the "refinement" of the "Aryan man", Christian Faber, playing the piano in a middle class setting. His latest acquisition is a beautiful notebook on which he has written what his fiancée father describes as beautiful thoughts. Faber's fiancée is the beautiful and stereotypically blonde Aryan young woman, Dorothea Sturm, the daughter of the chairman of the state council Mr Sturm. The message we get is that overtly stated in The Eternal Jew, that the Jews do their business in the synagogue and that Jews are more interested in money than high culture, such as music. The wailing is contrasted with the refined sounds of the piano. Throughout the film the Jews are shown as physically repugnant in contrast to the German Aryan types. At the same time a well-respected general is being sworn in as the new Duke of the Kingdom.

Corruption of Government by Jewish Finance
10 min The villain of the movie Suss-Oppenheimer appears in a kaftan, beard, dreadlocks, and outlines his plan to get the Jews into the city so they can control the kingdom. The Duke's courtiers are already borrowing from Suss as they come to the ghetto to obtain his jewels and finance. In order to get into the city of Stuttgart, from which all Jews are banned, Suss changes his appearance. He tells his fellow Jews that his scheme will open the door to all Jews to get into the city. Just as in the The Eternal Jew, Suss as a Jew is shown after he has removed all his kaftans, beard, dreadlocks. He appears to be the same as non-Jews, but the stress in the film is on the message that psychologically he is as cunning as ever, as he gets the newly elected Duke of the kingdom into debt by financing his expensive ballets and concerts, grand dancing balls, and operas, which the Duke's advisory council refuses to fund. Suss is actually brought to the town by Dorothea, who picks him up after his carriage overturns. Her kindness is contrasted with Suss's selfish cunning.

15 min Suss manipulates and corrupts the Duke's weaknesses even although the Duke knows Suss is Jewish. However, the "more astute" Aryan Germans clearly recognise Suss as a Jew and show their contempt for him. This once again plays out the stereotyped stated in the Eternal Jew, that Jewish finance manipulates the governments of the world. Suss convinces the Duke that the Jews will make money for him, but really they are out to corrupt the kingdom and live off it like parasites doing no work at all. Once again this image is overtly stated in The Eternal Jew but more subtly portrayed in Jud Suss. Suss becomes the Duke's finance minister.

30 min To pay off his debts, the Duke gives Suss control over the tolls of the roads and allows the Jews to come into the town. Immediately we see the corruption of the society by the Jewish influence as honest people are forced to pay high tolls and are manipulated by Jewish overseers. They tell the farmers don't worry about the tolls just pass it onto the buyers in the town. The price of food goes up because the tolls mean that farmers bringing their produce into the city simple pass it on in the form of higher food prices. Jewish control over the tolls and roads even results in the hanging of a blacksmith whose house is cut in half because Suss wanted to get rid of a junction in the road. The blacksmith attacks Suss when he arrives with his mistress to look at the half-house that widening the road has created. The poor blacksmith is later hanged, and the townsfolk are appalled that the Jew Suss has carried out this injustice.

Thwarting the Jewish Plot
40 min The citizens of the kingdom increasingly become aware of the insidious nature of the Jewish influence. Suss is seen as supplying the Duke with mistresses and observing the Duke's conduct of state business through a peephole in his office. Suss encourages the sexual and moral decadence of the Duke to the dismay of the elite of the city. In one scene, he takes their daughters to a different part of the ballroom so the Duke can seduce them. At this point, Suss tries to seduce the blonde Aryan heroine Dorothea Sturm, the daughter of a member of the council and the fiancée of Christian Faber. Her father gets Dorothea and Faber married the night of the day that Suss indicates his interest in her and this enrages Suss.

Suss later takes the Duke to a Rabbi whom he says can predict the future in order to have the Duke dismiss the increasingly worried council and declare himself absolute sovereign and raise a mercenary army of soldiers from another part of the country. Suss at the synagogue gets the Jews to put up the finance for this venture, telling them that this is the way to control the kingdom. Once again there is parallel content with the direct statements in the Eternal Jew. The wailing at the synagogue is shown in a strange and shady way that appears to suggest that there is evil afoot in all synagogues.

60 min The Duke is now portrayed as being completely under the influence of Suss. He appoints new troops financed by the Jews and is about to make himself absolute sovereign. However, the council gets wind of this and stages a revolution. To add to the "just" nature of the overthrow of Suss and the Duke, the story has a scene where Suss takes hostage the fiancée of the heroine Dorothea. Suss then tortures him, so that Dorothea will submit herself to Suss's sexual demands to get him released. Dorethea is raped by Suss, and she then drowns herself. Faber, after his release because Dorothea has submitted to Suss's sexual advances, recovers her body from the lake. He carries her body throughout the town, and outraged townspeople storm the Jewish officials' office in the state buildings of the kingdom. They kill the Jewish officials.

80 min At the same time, the Duke and Suss are attending a lavish state function and party in another town. On their way to take power from Suss and the Duke, the rebels convince the Jewish financed troops that they do not want a civil war by fighting them - their quarrel is only with the Jews. The soldiers seem to accept this and let the rebels pass. The way is now open for them to confront the Duke. When they confront their corrupted ruler, the inebriated Duke has a heart attack and dies. Power now reverts back to the council, which puts Suss on trial. At Suss's trial the blacksmith's hanging is brought up. The father of Dorothea as a council member trying Suss is asked to decide the fate of Suss. He "quotes" from an old law book that Jews and Christians should not mix, and that death should be handed out to those Jews who break this prohibition. Suss protests that he was just doing what the Duke had requested all the way to the gallows. He is hanged in February 1738 and the Jews are ordered to leave the city.