Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
Motel the Operator
TITLE DETAILS

Motel the Operator

1940-01-15 · 88 min · ★ 10.0

Drama

Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Joseph Seiden
Production companies
Cinema Service Corp.
Countries
United States of America
Status
Released

Top Cast

Chaim TauberMotel Friedman
Malvina RappelEsther Friedman
Maurice KronerBenjamin Rosenwald
Berthe HartRebecca Rosenwald
Seymour RechtzeitJack Rosenwald
Jacob ZangerJacob 'Joseph' Frumkin
Yetta ZwerlingChane Belle 'Annabella' Frumkin
Gertrude KrauseRuth Frumkin
Herman RosenDoctor
Izidor FrankelBoss
Seymour RechzeitJacob 'Jack' Rosenwald
Maurice KrohnerBenjamin Rosenwald
Joseph Schoengold
Louis 'Leibele' WaldmanThe Cantor

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Streaming

FILMBOX+ Now Amazon Channel

View authorized watch options on TMDb

Recommendations

Eleanor the Great
★ 6.8
Eleanor the Great2025Drama

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

In Dubious Battle
★ 5.8
In Dubious Battle2016Drama

In the California apple country, 900 migratory workers rise 'in dubious battle' against the landowners. The group takes on a life of its own—stronger than its individual members, and more frightening. Led by the doomed Jim Nolan, the strike is founded on his tragic idealism—'courage, never submit, or yield'.

Lorelei
★ 6.0
Lorelei2020Drama

A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.

Holy Lands
★ 6.1
Holy Lands2019Drama

When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

Salomé
★ 6.1
Salomé2013Drama

After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.

The Safety of Objects
★ 6.5
The Safety of Objects2002Drama

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

Invincible
★ 6.2
Invincible2001Drama

A Jewish strongman performs in Berlin as the blond Aryan hero Siegfried.

Won't Back Down
★ 6.2
Won't Back Down2012Drama

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

Rogue Agent
★ 6.3
Rogue Agent2022Drama

Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.

Gigi & Nate
★ 7.7
Gigi & Nate2022Drama

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Tigertail
★ 6.7
Tigertail2020Drama

A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Hardball
★ 6.5
Hardball2001Drama

An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

Goodbye June
★ 6.5
Goodbye June2025Drama

Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.

Most
★ 7.3
Most2003Drama

A poetic and powerful story of a father forced to choose between love and duty.

Home Run
★ 6.2
Home Run2013Drama

A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team

The Unforgivable
★ 7.4
The Unforgivable2021Drama

A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.

Bastard Out of Carolina
★ 7.1
Bastard Out of Carolina1996Drama

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

Salt of the Earth
★ 7.0
Salt of the Earth1954Drama

At New Mexico's Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts. Ramon Quintero helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a hypocrite by treating his pregnant wife, Esperanza, with a similar unfairness. When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.

Hands of Stone
★ 6.6
Hands of Stone2016Drama

The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.

Fast Girls
★ 6.0
Fast Girls2012Drama

A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.

Similar titles

A Room in Town
★ 6.3
A Room in Town1982Drama

Set against the backdrop of an increasingly violent strike, a worker falls in love with the middle-class daughter of his landlady.

Gandhi
★ 7.6
Gandhi1982Drama

In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.

The City of First Love
★ 9.0
The City of First Love1971Drama

The film tells about the inhabitants of the Russian city of Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad-Volgograd. The film consists of three novellas, united by the theme of love and the scene - a city on the Volga.

Man of Iron
★ 7.0
Man of Iron1981Drama

In Warsaw in 1980, the Communist Party sends disgruntled radio reporter Winkel to Gdańsk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers - particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an independent labour union leader whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews the people surrounding Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka.

Lady Caliph
★ 5.5
Lady Caliph1970Drama

La Califfa's husband was killed during the strikes so she takes the side of the strikers. Her conflict with the plant owner Doverdo gradually turns into a love relationship.

Tear It Down
Not rated
Tear It Down2022Drama

In an insurrectionary climate, four twenty-year-old friends talk about politics. As a big protest looms, one of them, Clara, has to write a college essay. Caught in the virtual images and the comfort of her bedroom, going out is harder than expected.

A Matter of Sex
★ 7.3
A Matter of Sex1984Drama

Dramatization of the true story of the so-called Willmar Eight, a group of Minnesota bank workers who braved freezing conditions whilst picketing their branch in a struggle for union rights.

Animal Factory
★ 6.3
Animal Factory2000Drama

Suburbanite Ron is spoiled, young and not overly worried about the marijuana charges leveled against him. But, after being made out to be a drug dealer, he faces a five-year jail sentence in San Quentin State Prison. Physically frail and unaccustomed to his rough surroundings, Ron is primed to fall victim to sexual predators and bullying guards – that is, until he's befriended by Earl, a veteran inmate who finds meaning in protecting the vulnerable new kid.

Happiness
★ 7.4
Happiness1998Drama

The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.

Beauty Parlor
★ 7.5
Beauty Parlor1932Drama

Film follows the romantic exploits of two depression-era manicurists, one of whom is being woo'd by a true gentleman of means, the other of whom lets herself become a pawn of operators of a call-girl ring.

Tin Gods
★ 9.0
Tin Gods1926Drama

In a mountain village in South America, Dr. McCoy and the padre watch Roger Drake enter a small chapel near a towering bridge, and McCoy recounts the story of Drake's life: As a rising engineer, he marries Janet Stone, the ambitious daughter of a wealthy family, and neglects his career while Janet becomes a candidate for the State Assembly. Drake comes into conflict with her political friends, and when their baby falls from its nursery window, the couple remorsefully decide to separate. Drake, degenerated by drink, goes to South America to construct a bridge; there he is stricken by fever and is redeemed by the love and care of Carita, a dancer. Carita, however, learns of Janet's political defeat and her attempt to effect a reconciliation with Drake; thinking he still loves his wife, she leaps from the bridge. Drake returns each year to the chapel he has erected in her memory. A lost film.

Men Call It Love
★ 6.0
Men Call It Love1931Drama

Pre-code melodrama about high society marriage and fidelity.

Queen for a Day
★ 7.5
Queen for a Day1951Drama

Adapted from the TV and radio series of the same name, the producer of said show reads letters from three woman providing the framing story for this melodrama anthology film. The tales focus on parenting and family struggles.

Autumn Weddings
★ 7.3
Autumn Weddings1968Drama

A poetic story about the first love of the village girl Natasha, loyal to the memory of the deceased fiancé. In peacetime, the heroine's fiancé blew up on a land mine that remained on the collective farm field since the war, and her life turned into a nightmare. But sooner or later, dreams end and the world opens again. Pregnant Natasha goes to the institutions, seeking to be signed with the father of the unborn child who died tragically. At the end, after long ordeals, she comes to the conclusion that writing in the marriage book will not change anything in her life.

The Man Without a World
★ 3.7
The Man Without a World1991Drama

The Man Without a World is credited to the legendary (and imaginary) 1920s Soviet director, Yevgeny Antinov. But the film is anything but old. In fact, Antinov himself is the creation of contemporary filmmaker Eleanor Antin. Her film is a moving, comic melodrama set in a typical shtetl (village) in Poland. The Jews’ struggle against poverty and racial hatred is complicated by their own division into hostile political factions of the religious orthodoxy, assimilationists, socialists, Zionists, anarchists and survivors. While the Jews of the shtetl pursue their loves, politics, religion, business and dreams for the future, the Angel of Death is ever near...

Beddua
★ 9.0
Beddua1980Drama

Story of a famous singer from a small rural village, making it big in the city by following their passion.

Salt of the Earth
★ 7.0
Salt of the Earth1954Drama

At New Mexico's Empire Zinc mine, Mexican-American workers protest the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages compared to their Anglo counterparts. Ramon Quintero helps organize the strike, but he is shown to be a hypocrite by treating his pregnant wife, Esperanza, with a similar unfairness. When an injunction stops the men from protesting, however, the gender roles are reversed, and women find themselves on the picket lines while the men stay at home.

The Funeral
★ 6.8
The Funeral1996Drama

After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.

Random Harvest
★ 7.3
Random Harvest1942Drama

Wandered away from his asylum, an amnesiac World War I veteran falls in love with a music hall star but his amnesia makes it difficult to last.

The Man in Grey
★ 6.1
The Man in Grey1943Drama

After marrying a dour and disinterested lord for status, a young woman falls in love with a stage actor while her best friend from boarding school enters an affair with her husband.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.