Michael Rosenberg

Mirele Efros, "the Jewish Queen Lear," was the masterpiece of Ukrainian-born Jacob Gordin, an enormously influential Yiddish playwright whose works sought to describe and promulgate the ethos of mentshlekhkeyt: the practice of honesty, decency, and devotion toward family and community. This sophisticated version of his stage classic faithfully recreates Jewish life in turn-of-the-century Grodno, Poland.

David Gottlieb, a longtime accountant at a New York firm run by Abe Zablinsky and his partner, is concerned about the future of his three daughters and worries that he might lose his job if he makes a mistake.

This musical drama marks the screen debut of Moishe Oysher, in a film critic J. Hoberman calls an "anti-Jazz Singer." Oysher stars as a wayward youth who makes his way from his Polish shtetl to New York's Lower East Side where he is "discovered" and becomes a well-known singer. Ultimately, he returns home to the Old Country and reunites with his parents and his childhood sweetheart.

When handsome actor Eddie Wien decides to marry, his uncle Oscar Stein warns that all women are frivolous and selfish, only on the lookout for a fat pocketbook. To prove him wrong, Eddie woos shop girl Golde Blumberg while disguised as a repulsive old millionaire “Herman Weingarten.” Golde initially resists “Herman” but, forced to escape her dire financial situation, she finally accepts. A second bet is devised and the elaborate farce continues. In the end, the lovers triumph over deceptions and mistaken identities.