Jiddisches Kino

HIS WIFE’S LOVER / Zayn Vaybs Lubovnik
Sidney Goldin, USA 1931

Mo, 17.11., 18.30, Votivkino

Produktion/Production Company High Arts Pictures Corp. Produzent/Producer Louis Weiss Regie/Directors Sidney Goldin Buch/Script Shin Ra-Chell (= Sheyne Rokhl Simkoff) Kamera/DoP Frank Zucker Ton Percy R. Glenn DarstellerInnen/Cast Ludwig Satz, Lucy Levin, Isidore Casher, Lillian Feinman, Michael Rosenberg, Jacob Frank, Zita Ma-Kar, Anne Shapiro, Zero Zazi, Moshe Silberstein, Sam Levenworth, William Epstein

Spielfilm, 35 mm, 80 Minuten, jidd. OF, engl. UT

Als der attraktive Schauspieler Eddie Wien (Ludwig Satz) den Wunsch äußert zu heiraten, warnt ihn sein Onkel Stein – ein Fabrikbesitzer und Theatermäzen –, dass alle Frauen frivol und selbstsüchtig seien und sich nur für eine dicke Handtasche interessieren würden. Er wettet mit Eddie $ 10.000, dass er keine andere finden wird. Selbst die schüchterne Verkäuferin in Steins Geschäft, Golde Blumberg, Vorbild der Tugendhaftigkeit, würde sich für Geld verkaufen … Damit ist eine tour de force eröffnet, ein musikalisch-burlesker Kampf um die Liebe und ein Happy End. HIS WIFE’S LOVER ist die Adaption eines populären jiddischen Bühnenhits der New Yorker Saison 1929/1930. Mit Minimalbudget dreht Goldin diesen Film in nur neuen Tagen an der Lower East Side auf der Höhe der Wirtschaftsdepression. »Ludwig Satz, the gifted tummler who prefigures such mainstream American clowns as Sid Caesar and Jerry Lewis gets to strut his gallery of oafs and rakes …« (Richard Corliss)

Adapted from a popular Yiddish stage hit from the 1929-1930 season also starring Satz and filmed on a small budget in nine days on the Lower East Side at the height of the Depression, this fast-paced, song-filled farce benefits from location camerawork and fine performances. The music (although credited to Satz) was the first hit for Abraham Ellstein, who went on to become the accompanist for Molly Picon and a pillar of the Yiddish Theatre. When handsome actor Eddie Wien (Ludwig Satz), decides to marry, his uncle and theatrical backer factory owner Oscar Stein (Isidore Casher) warns that all women are frivolous and selfish, only on the lookout for a fat pocketbook. Stein bets Eddie $10,000 that he cannot find a women who isn’t; even Golde Blumberg, an innocent shopgirl in Stein’s employ and a paragon of virtue, would, he argues ultimately sell herself for money. To put Golde—and her sex—to the test, Eddie must woo her as a repulsive, old millionaire “Herman Weingarten” and get her to refuse his offer of marriage. Golde, who has a crush on Eddie, initially resists “Herman,” but nagged by her relatives and by Stein to accept the offer of a lifetime and desperate to escape her dire financial situation, she finally accepts. Eddie is heartbroken, not only because he has lost $10,000 but because in the course of the experiment, he has fallen in love with Golde. His uncle advises him to marry Golde, even though she was willing to marry an old fool for his money, arguing that soul and love do not exist in a woman, and Eddie shouldn’t hope for better. This leads to a new bet: Eddie will marry Golde, still disguised as the old man, and for $25,000 he will prove that she will remain faithful even to a husband she does not love. (http://www.brandeis.edu/jewishfilm/Catalogue/films/hiswifeslover.htm)

Siehe: www.filmarchiv.at