Screening & Book Talk
THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET
Monday, December 15th at 7:15 PM
Featuring a post-film book talk and Q&A with former Congressman Steve
Israel, in conversation with Rabbi Jeffrey Clopper of Temple Beth El
Join author and owner of Theodore's Books, former Congressman Steve Israel
for a screening of Henry Hathaway’s classic political thriller, The House on
92nd Street, and a discussion of his new novel, The Einstein Conspiracy. The
former Congressman will be joined in conversation with Rabbi Jeffrey Clopper,
the spiritual leader and visionary for Temple Beth El.
Copies of The Einstein Conspiracy
will be available for purchase at the event courtesy of Northport Books.
ABOUT THE FILM:
Based on actual FBI case files, The House on 92nd Street (1945) is
a taut World War II espionage thriller that marked a turning point in American
filmmaking. Shot entirely on location in New York City, it pioneered the
“docudrama” style that would later influence classics like The Naked City.
The film follows Bill Dietrich (William Eythe), a German-American college
student recruited by Nazi spies while studying abroad. Secretly working as a
double agent for the FBI, Dietrich infiltrates a New York spy ring operating
out of a townhouse on the Upper East Side. As he navigates a web of
deception - entangling with the elegant but dangerous Elsa Gebhardt (Signe
Hasso) - he races to uncover the identity of the elusive “Mr. Christopher” and
prevent atomic secrets from falling into enemy hands. Praised for its realism and innovative
use of actual FBI personnel and footage, The House on 92nd Street won
the Academy Award for Best Story and received nominations for Best Screenplay
and Best Supporting Actor (Leo G. Carroll). (USA, 1945, 88 mins, English |
Dir. Henry Hathaway)
ABOUT THE BOOK:
New York Harbor, 1933. A passenger liner approaches Lower Manhattan and America
awaits it with excitement.
Renowned physicist Albert Einstein,
whose genius and fame are nearly matched by his stubbornness, has fled the Nazi
regime to take refuge in the United States. With the past attempts on his life
now an ocean away, Einstein will teach America's best and brightest at
Princeton while continuing to voice his passionate resistance against Hitler.
FBI Agents James Amos and Harry Weiss
are pulled off a mob case to pursue a bizarre lead that Hitler-who is convinced
Einstein holds the key to developing an atomic superweapon-is sending a Nazi
operative to abduct the scientist. They are soon plunged into an upside-down
America that has festered out of sight across the country. In this surreal
world of shadows, Nazi rallies fill out the iconic Madison Square Garden, Upper
East Side neighborhoods become pro-Hitler enclaves, and quaint Long Island
villages are transformed into mini fascist utopias. Appearances are not only
deceiving, but deadly.
Based on actual events, The Einstein
Conspiracy is a gripping historical thriller, rich with haunting reminders of a
moment in American history when the line between foreign enemy and domestic
threat was perilously thin.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Steve Israel is the only U.S. Congressman who ever retired from the House to
open an independent bookstore, Theodore's Books in Oyster Bay, NY. He has
written two critically acclaimed political satires, The Global War on Morris
(2014) and Big Guns (2018). His essays have appeared in the New York Times,
Washington Post, Atlantic Magazine, among others. Steve Israel (Member of
Congress 2001-2017). For more information visit, repsteveisrael.com.
