Jolly Paupers Poland, 1937, 62 minutes, B&W
Public Exhibition Formats: 35mm, 16mm |
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"The film has its charm, especially in delightful comic sequence when the pair are declared insane.... It's all silly fun."
–Variety
"A low-budget satire of shtetl mores, Jolly Paupers is the closest the screen came to a Yiddish cabaret sensibililty: irreverent, mordant, and consciously theatrical."
- J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds
Synopsis
Jolly Paupers combines the rare talents of the Warsaw Art Players under the leadership of Zygmunt Turkow. In this musical comedy, the famous comic duo Dzigan and Shumacher play two small town "entrepreneurs" who believe they have struck oil in a local field. The whole town finds out and thus begins a comedy of errors, including millionaire investors, Amercian schemers, and insane asylums (not to mention a little matchmaking on the side). Yet in the face of setbacks, these two simpletons are relentless in their efforts to escape their misery and achieve fame and fortune and refuse to give in to despair.
During the last years preceding the outbreak of World War II, the Dzigan and Shumacher comedy revue theatre gained immense popularity. Their satirical monologues and skits provided Jewish audiences with an escape and a rare opportunity to laugh.
Selected Screenings
Haverford College Yiddish Cultural Festival (2016)
Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw (2015)
Pacific Film Archive (2009)
Filmmuseum of Munich (2009)
Cape Town/ Johannesburg Yiddish Film Festival (2008)
Toronto Jewish Film Festival (2006)
Barbican Center for the Arts, London (1996)
Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival (1994)
NCJF Film Restoration
Preservation and restoration was made possible by Arnold & Ruth Picker and Henry & Edith Everett with additional support from Brandeis University, American Jewish Historical Society, American Film Institute, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Council for the Arts and Humanities (Now the Massachusetts Cultural Council), and Library of Congress
Credits
Directors Leon Jeannot & Zygmunt Turkow
Producers Shaul Goskind, Wincenty Tennenbaum
Screenplay Moshe Broderson
Photography Adolf Forbert
Music Henoch Kon
Sound Jerzy Bock
Sets Wincenty Brauner, C.Z. Piaskowski
Make-up W. Skrzpkowski
Staging/ Continuity I.M. Naiman
1985 Restoration © The National Center for Jewish Film
Executive Director Sharon Pucker Rivo
Associate Director Miriam Saul Krant
Research Consultant Sylvia Fulks Fried
Technical Director Nina Weisberg
Translator Sylvia Fulks Fried
Production Assistant Arlene Miller
Laboratory John E. Allen, Inc.
Titles Title Works
Cast
Shimon Dzigan
Israel Shumacher
F. Garbarg
Ruth Turkov
Anna Appel
Chana Levin
F. Lavic
Menash Oppenheim
Shmuel Goldstein
Jennie Lovitch
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Also with Shimon Dzigan & Israel Schumacher
Also with Zygmunt Turkow
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