American Matchmaker (Amerikaner Shadkhn)
RESTORED BY NCJF
USA, 1940, 87 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
35mm 16mm DVD
Leo Fuchs, the "Yiddish Fred Astaire," stars in this musical comedy as Nat Silver, a debonair and wealthy Jewish-American businessman whose recent engagement (his eighth) goes awry. Ulmer’s last Yiddish movie was also his most modern, an art deco romantic comedy about male ambivalence and Jewish assimilation. More
USA, 1935, 75 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Henry Lynn
DVD
Starring Yiddish theater superstar Boris Thomashefsky in his only film performance, this musical melodrama is a masterwork of shund, the bread and butter of the Yiddish theater. More
USA, 1931, 10 min, B&W
Yiddish with English subtitles
Directed by Sidney M. Goldin
35mm 16mm DVD
Cantor Leibele Waldman plays multiple roles in this spoof of a synagogue committee in search of a chazan (cantor). More
USA, 1937, 90 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Ilya Motyleff (Sidney Goldin, uncredited)
35mm DVD
This "anti-Jazz Singer” marks the screen debut of Moishe Oysher who stars as a wayward youth who makes his way from his Polish shtetl to New York's Lower East Side where he becomes a well-known singer. Ultimately, he returns home to the Old Country and reunites with his parents and his childhood sweetheart. More
USA, 1949, 93 minutes, B&W
English and Yiddish (no subtitles)
Directed by Josef Berne
16mm DVD
A Jewish resort hotel celebrates a pair of longtime customers' 50th wedding anniversary by staging an old-fashioned Borscht Belt show. Filmed on location at Young's Gap Hotel in Parksville, New York. More
USA, 2006, 120 minutes, B&W/color
Hebrew, Yiddish and English with English subtitles
Directed by Rich Pontius; Produced by Cantor Murray Simon
2 DVD Set
These two films feature some of the rarest and finest performances of renowned cantors from 1910 to the 1940s, including Adolph Katchko, Yossele Rosenblatt, David Roitman, Joseph Shlisky, and Mordechai Hershman, Moshe Koussevitsky, and Leibele Waldman. More
USA, 1931, 80 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Sidney M. Goldin
35mm DVD
His Wife’s Lover stars the popular comedian of the Yiddish theatre Ludwig Satz. It was billed as the "first Jewish musical comedy talking picture." More
USA, 1937, 15 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with English subtitles
Directed by Joseph Seiden
35mm 16mm DVD
A lively short about a husband and wife who seek to reignite their marriage by pretending to be landlady and tenant. More
Poland, 1937, 90 minutes, B&W with sepia tone and blue-green ton
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Joseph Green and Jan Nowina-Przybylski
35mm DVD
A parade of costume, buffoonery and music, The Jester highlights both a shoemaker's scheme to marry his daughter into a prominent family as well as the festival of Purim. More
USA, 1939, 88 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Joseph Seiden
Digital Blu-ray DVD
A melodrama -with music and romance- about a girl torn between two childhood boyfriends, this film is a suprisingly risque shund Yiddish tearjerker exploring assimilation, antisemitism and gender roles. More
USA, 1937, 97 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Joseph Seiden
35mm DVD
The story of a stage couple whose marriage is strained by life in the theater. Adapted from one of the best 2nd Avenue Yiddish Theatre domestic melodramas, director Joseph Seiden’s sentimental film is drawn from life in 1930s New York City. More
Poland, 1938, 100 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Joseph Green and Konrad Tom
16mm DCP DigiBeta Blu-ray DVD
Mamele embraces the entire gamut of interwar Jewish life in Lodz—tenements and unemployed Jews, nightclubs and gangsters, religious Jews celebrating sukkot—but the film belongs to Molly Picon who romps undaunted through her dutiful daughter role, keeping the family intact, singing and acting her way through the stages of a woman's life from childhood to old age. More
USA, 1940, 77 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Max Nosseck
35mm 16mm DVD
The story of a Vilna cantor seduced by the opera resonates with the voice of Moishe Oysher. Carefully lit cinematography, well-shaped dialogue, and Alexander Olshanetsky's musical score steer Overture clear of melodramatic excess. More
USA, 1938, 95 minutes, B&W
Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
35mm 16mm DVD
Moishe Oysher gives his most robust performance as a passionate shtetl blacksmith who must struggle against temptation to become a mensch. Ulmer’s film is a musical version of David Pinski’s classic 1906 play Yankl der Schmid. More
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