The Pawnbroker (film)

The Pawnbroker is a 1964 drama film, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters, Jaime Snchez and Morgan Freeman in his feature film debut. It was adapted by Morton S. Fine and David Friedkin from the novel of the same name by Edward Lewis Wallant.

With the rise of Hitler, Sol Nazerman Steiger, a GermanJewish university professor, was dragged to a concentration camp along with his family. He saw his two children die one while riding in a cattle car and his wife raped by Nazi officers in the camp. Now he operates a pawnshop in East Harlem, while living in an anonymous Long Island apartment. Numbed by his experiences, he has worked hard not to experience emotions. Nazerman is bitter and alienated, viewing the people around him as rejects, scum. He is shown interacting cynically as he bargains with the many desperate characters pawning their goods.Nazerman is idolized by a young Puerto Rican, Jesus Ortiz Snchez, who works for Nazerman as his shop assistant, but the youths friendship is rebuffed, as are the overtures of Marilyn Birchfield Fitzgerald, a neighborhood social worker. ........

Source: Wikipedia