This is an outstanding documentary on an early movie mogul who doesn't get that much attention, and when he does, the attention is often somewhat negative. Or, at best, Laemmle is presented as somewhat of an oddity, rather like his movies.
The film tells the story of his entire life, starting with his birth and childhood in Laupheim, Germany. After his mother's death he comes to New York at age 17. He worked his way up in retail, married the boss' daughter, and was doing very well, but it was a far cry from the big success he wanted to be when he first
came to America. So at age 39, with a family to support, he got into the Nickelodeon business. Edison acting like the mob with the Nickelodeon operators, and for that matter with the entire film industry, actually caused Laemmle to expand his business into film distribution and then film production. He finally went west to escape Edison, like so many other filmmakers did, and it was in 1912 when he was 45 years old, that Universal Pictures was founded.
Laemmle gave so many talented people their big breaks, many related to him, but some, like John Ford, were not. There are plenty of documentaries out there that talk about Universal's unique output product - I'd recommend the excellent "Universal Horror" for that - but this is more about the motivation of the man and what set him apart from other early movie moguls, many of whom had the same immigrant experience and Jewish heritage that he had. Mainly - He was a truly kind person who never forgot where he came from.
Turning the running of Universal over to his son n 1929, and then the family losing control of Universal completely in 1936, Laemmle could devote himself to other interests. And starting in 1932 that interest was getting Jews out of Germany. The problem was not that the Germans did not want to let the Jews go - they were glad to see them go, and the door was wide open. The problem was, especially with the Great Depression making jobs scarce, the door being slammed shut in countries they might go to, including the United States. So Laemmle had to get creative in how he managed to get German Jews into the country.
I had always wondered why Laemmle's family had a devotion to him that lasted decades past his death, and this documentary explained a great deal. The end of the film is quite touching, with photos of Jewish families that came to the United States due to Carl Laemmle's dogged determination, and then photos of the extended families of these same people today. I highly recommend this film.