It stars Danny Thomas, Peggy Lee, and Eduard Franz, and was nominated for an Oscar for best musical score.

As Jerry Golding, a young Korean War veteran, scales the heights of show business, he breaks the heart of his father, who had hoped that Jerry would instead follow in the footsteps of six consecutive generations of cantors in their family.

Sorrowfully, Cantor David Golding reads the Kaddish service, indicating that, so far as he is concerned, his son is dead.

A tearful reconciliation occurs when Jerry dutifully returns to sing the "Kol Nidre" in his ailing father's absence.

Eduard Franz, who played the role of the aged and ailing cantor battling his son, would go on to reprise his role in the television version of the story starring Jerry Lewis that would be broadcast just seven years later in 1959.