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| Images courtesy of Ergo Media |
Decades before making
a grand reappearance onscreen in Norman Jewison’s 1971 adaptation of the
Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, Yiddish actress Molly Picon started
out in the silent film era in the early annals of the Yiddish language film
industry which flourished from 1911 to around 1940. Though Yiddish cinema was near completely
devastated by the holocaust, near vanishing from the film scene post-WWII, a
wide number of films still survived the scourge pointing to a once thriving community
and snapshot of perhaps some of the early birthing stages of the romantic
comedy. One which charmed the hearts of
many and represented a unique Polish-Yiddish-American co-production was Polish
born actors-directors Joseph Green and Konrad Tom’s 1938 Polish-Yiddish musical
romcom Mamele, a film that both functions as a glimpse of a prewar life
as well as a cute and charming riff on the Cinderella story.
Mostly a sweet natured frolic rolling out a
red carpet for leading lady Molly Picon, the second actress-director
collaboration between Green and Picon following the 1936 Łódź set Yiddish
musical Yiddle with His Fiddle zeroes in on Khavtshi Samet (Picon) who
following the death of her mother shoulders the responsibility of little mother
or Mamele. Tasked with grocery
shopping, cooking, cleaning and caring for her ungrateful entitled family,
Khavtshi also finds herself fending her younger brother and sister off of
lecherous gangsters (most notably Maks Katz played by Menashe Oppenheim) eager
to exploit the naïve youths. Reaching
her boiling point, the beleaguered young servant ups and moves across the
street in with well-dressed musician Schlesinger (Edmund Zayenda) whom she
quickly begins a romantic bond with.
A boilerplate Cinderella
romcom rife with Yiddish culture and iconography anchored by an adorably
plucky heroine, this Polish-Yiddish romantic musical comedy co-written by Szmul
Goldstein, Mojzesz Nudelman and Meyer Schwartz is something of a lost film. Wonderfully played by Molly Picon who was
reportedly forty years old at the time though you’d never know it watching the
film, Mamele is curious for how the cast and production crew were from America
but traveled to Poland to star in the picture.
Shot and blocked by Polish cinematographer Seweryn Steinwurzel, the film
has the staged look of a vaudevillian exercise replete with a musical dream
sequence mid-movie and the songs by frequent collaborator Abe Ellstein of Yiddle
with His Fiddle give the proceedings a whimsical touch.
While Yiddish cinema
is still active in the present era including but not limited to the recently
released Tikkun, Mamele is most certainly exemplar of when the
industry was at its peak with one of its greatest screen talents at her
best. Though Fiddler on the Roof did
a solid job of recreating Yiddish culture onscreen pre-WWII including but not
limited to casting Molly Picon herself as the matchmaker, Mamele is the
real unexpurgated thing with all the characteristics of Yiddish culture in the
past and present on full display. Yes
certain elements of the film are indeed dated and the only surviving copy as of
present looks to be taken from a scratchy VHS print with white-on-white
subtitles that are illegible at times.
Nevertheless, one still can’t help but come away feeling gratified at
the opportunity to see Yiddish screen icon Molly Picon strut her stuff with
gusto as a tough but loving young Yiddish Cinderella.
--Andrew Kotwicki
