alix1929 Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Did anyone catch this one on Fox Movie Channel? It starred George Arliss, Loretta Young & Boris Karloff (in a weird, blond looking wig). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bansi4 Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Alix, good to see you on the boards again. I watched "The House of Rothchild" (1934) on Fox and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was an entertaining chronicle of the famed Jewish banking family, and what they had to endure, prior to success. I particulary liked the performance of character actress Helen Westley as both Arliss' wife and mother, since he played a duel role. Of course Loretta Young was radiant. With some elaborate settings, it's a good history lesson. I read that the finale was shot in color, yet Fox didn't show it that way. Mongo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alix1929 Posted February 26, 2006 Author Share Posted February 26, 2006 I also was surprised at the fact that I enjoyed it too. I knew absolutely nothing about the Rothchilds, and even hit the internet looking for info to see if the movie was historically accurate. For the most part, it seems to be. However, I could find no decendent of Nathan Rothchild who was named "Julie." Perhaps I didn't dig enough. The one thing that made me just laugh out loud was Karloff in that ridiculous wig. I like to see Karloff in non-sinister roles, but this one I had a hard time with. I also read on the imdb that the finale was in color. I wonder what happened to it? Seems like it'd be worth re-doing, if the negatives exist. I don't watch Fox at all--except when they show a pre-Code, and then I find it impossible to not watch. I wish they'd dig down a little deeper and show more of their 1930's gems. I know I'd be front & center to watch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Maybe someone can tell me something I?ve been wondering about for years. I think this is an historical mystery. Where did they hide their vast supplies of gold? If they had accumulated enough gold (or maybe diamonds) so that they could make big loans to whole countries, where did they hide it back in the old days? How did they keep from being robbed? How did they make deliveries of the money/gold/diamonds? How were they assured of repayment? Without their own army, how did they collect on big loans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alix1929 Posted February 26, 2006 Author Share Posted February 26, 2006 Good question! Any ideas, anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vecchiolarry Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Hi Fred, Don't take this as gospel but it was once mentioned to me in the early 50's as my grandmother and I passed through the Duchy of Savoy in Southeastern France that there was a huge stash of gold, silver and platinum buried near Mont Blanc. Apparently, there was an underground room that hid many Savoy treasures and money for centuries and the Rothschilds financed the Savoys when they became the Kings of Sicily, Sardinia and then Italy. They ruled from Turin, which is now in the news because of the Olympics. The Savoys have at least a dozen very ornate palaces in Turin. Just in passing - my grandmother was once married to the Duke of Aosta (1926-1936), a cousin of the King of Italy. So she was a Savoy once and it was she who told me about the buried treasure. Maybe the Rothschilds had their gold there too (that's the part not to take as gospel - since I don't know if Rothschild treasure was there or not) but who knows. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Interesting. Thanks. I?ve wondered for years about this. I?ve read in a lot of history books about whenever one European country invaded another, the invaders would loot the country and many of the rich people. The same with revolutions like the French revolution and the Russian revolution, with the poor revolutionaries looting the homes of the rich. The same with gold and treasure ships. The English raided the Spanish ships and the Spanish raided the English ships. Other countries sponsored pirates who would raid both the English and Spanish ships. I was wondering.... since there were so many wars and revolutions in Europe, how did Mr. Rothschild escape all of this, how did he escape being captured by invading armies, and where/how did he hide all his wealth? And how did he collect on his loans, assuming some country?s leader decided not to pay off? We know how the Sicilians collected on loans. If someone didn?t pay, they?d break his leg or kidnap his daughter. There is another film (?Disraeli? 1929) that shows Disraeli arranging for a large loan from his friends to give England enough gold to buy the Suez Canal. So I was wondering how he made arrangements for payment (how did they ship the gold to England without it being stolen by bandits and pirates) and how did he guarantee re-payment of the loan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vecchiolarry Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Sorry Fred, I can't really answer this as I'm no banking expert. But kings and countries throughout history have honoured their bankers - the Fugger's and the Medici's in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and Disraeli certainly would have been honest. Perhaps it was a glorified 'line of credit' they all used. ??? Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredCDobbs Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 ?Perhaps it was a glorified 'line of credit' they all used. ???? Hmm.... it could be. They might have worked it the way modern banks work... with paper notes, rather than with a direct exchange of gold. Over a period of years, decades, centuries, word could have gone around that their paper notes were ?as good as gold?, and in some cases they could have actually delivered gold (or diamonds). But maybe they actually evolved the first paper banking system so that large heavy gold shipments did not have to be made, but the people receiving the benefit of the loans might have known that delivery of the real gold (or diamonds) could be had if it was required. (I?m only guessing.) I?ve been trying to figure out how someone who offered a large loan could deal with a bunch of crooked nations, filled with thieves and robbers and kings who hated each other, without being ripped off by those very kings, thieves, and robbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarhfive Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Hello, This is a very interesting conversation--I wish I had some pertinent information to add. FredCDobbs...what a great question (vis-a-vis Rothschild's money)! Oh, I will add something a little off-topic. I recently finished the book "The Amber Room". The book details the authors investigation into the vast (post WWII) search for the stolen Catherine Palace room. Tracking down clues to the Amber Room's fate, the authors follow a trail that includes much of northwest Russia and east Germany . I will not reveal the authors conclusion regarding the fate of the Amber Room--I don't want to ruin the story for anyone who might pick up the book. What was interesting was the almost fanatical interest (from 1945 to 1990) by Soviet Union, East German and West German governments regarding the whereabouts of the Amber Room. Through their (the authors) search of former Soviet Union and former East German archives, the authors reveal something about the complexities of 'doing business' in totalitarian regimes. Fascinating read. Rusty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vecchiolarry Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Hi Rusty, In 1998, they had the room that contained "The Amber Room" open to the public. There were photographs of what it looked like before the Germans stole it. And in 2002, there were artisans recreating the room as it once was; so nobody was allowed in there. I understand that it is now finished. I am going to St. Petersburg in September, so I will tour the Caterine Palace again and see what it looks like. Hope it's not a disappointment. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarhfive Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 vecchiolarry, A couple of chapters of "The Amber Room" is devoted to the construction of the 'new' amber room. The authors, Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, write about their meetings with Dr. Ivan Sautov, Director of the Catherine Palace and overseer of the re-building of the amber room. Larry...please write about your impressions of the 'new' amber room after your return from Russia. BTW: Excuse my (possible) forward request but, I would like to ask you about someone mentioned in the book, "The Amber Room". Considering your connections with Russian nobility, you may have may have met this person--Baron Eduard von Falz-Fein? Rusty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CineSage Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Maybe someone can tell me something I?ve been wondering about for years. I think this is an historical mystery. Where did they hide their vast supplies of gold? If they had accumulated enough gold (or maybe diamonds) so that they could make big loans to whole countries, where did they hide it back in the old days? How did they keep from being robbed? How did they make deliveries of the money/gold/diamonds? How were they assured of repayment? Without their own army, how did they collect on big loans? As depicted in MGM's IVANHOE (1952), banking is largely a matter of cultivating and obtaining IOU's from reputable debtors. If one is owed money by a large enough pool of individuals and businesses, banks are really in the business of selling, trading and acquiring others' debts which are, obviously, quite portable, and just as lucrative. If one takes a close look at a film like GOLDFINGER, the film falls apart when one realizes that Auric Goldfinger's plot to irradiate all the gold in Ft. Knox in order to make it inaccessable and inflate the value of his own holdings is utter nonsense. Whether one can gain access to the gold is irrelevant; even radioactive, the gold would still be in possession of the US government and, since transactions between nations are made on paper, and not by change in physical ownership of the metal (except in rare cases), it really doesn't matter if the stuff ends up glowing in the dark or not. In any case, Ft. Knox isn't even the United States' largest gold depository; that distinction goes to the US Military Academy at West Point, NY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vecchiolarry Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Hello Rusty, Baron Eduard von Falz Fein is a Liechtenstein nobleman with a very large and beautiful villa full of paintings and sculpture and many objets des arts....... I have been there once with my grandmother, who knew him very well. She has entertained him in Turin at her old palace there in 1953, when I first met him. He must be very old now as he was in his 40's in 1953. He is on the Olympic Committee, I think, and knows a lot about art. His family has old German and Russian connections. I believe he is related to the Dolgorukys..... Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CineSage Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 And he probably hunts visitors to his estate with shotguns, ? la Dick Cheney and Richard Connell's THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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