When the picture premiered in New York , it enjoyed an unprecedented success for a Soviet movie , and was screened in 103 different cinemas in the metropolitan area ; the Kristallnacht , which occurred two days after its premiere , drew the public 's attention to the subject matter and contributed to its popularity . '' The New York Times '' critic Frank S. Nugent wrote that the " ... Long-overdue indictment of Nazi persecution of the Jews has arrived at last ... It has come from Russia ... that is beyond Hollywood 's anxiety about the foreign market . " Nugent described the film as " engrossing , sincere , admirably played " but added that because of the " Soviets ' insistence on throwing a clove of propaganda ... None of its virtues completely counterbalances the burden . " He concluded the producers " used the persecution of the Jews as a selfish political argument " . The film was the runner-up for the Best Foreign Film Award in the 1938 New York Film Critics Circle Awards . Edward G. Robinson later declared : " I would give my teeth to do an American version of '' Professor Mamlock '' , that great story of a Jewish doctor in Nazi Germany " . Professor Hans-Jacques Mamlok , a German-Jewish dentist who immigrated from Berlin to America and claimed that Wolf 's play was inspired by him , sued the picture 's distributors for a compensation of 100,000 Dollars and demanded to remove the film from cinemas , claiming it presented him as a communist sympathizer
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Professor Mamlock (1938 film)