Screening & Book Talk, Presented with Theodore’s Books
THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET (1945)
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.
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