Mamele

Mamele (1938) is a U.S. film that was produced in Poland. The movie was directed by Joseph Green. It's in Yiddish, with English subtitles. The actors were all from the U.S. They traveled to the industrial city of Lodz, Poland to act in the film. Of course, they could not know that one year later, the community depicted in the movie would no longer exist.

Mamele in Yiddish means "little mother." That's what her family calls Khavtshi Samet, who sacrifices everything to be their "mother" when their real mother dies. She is horribly treated by most of the other family members--sort of like a Jewish Cinderella, only worse.

Mamele is portrayed by Molly Picon. Picon was a star in both Yiddish-language and English-language films and theater. Although she was 40 when she played Mamele, she looked half that age. Ingenue roles were her specialty, and she was in her prime when she starred in this movie.

Mamele was shown at Rochester's wonderful Dryden Theatre at The George Eastman museum. However, bad road conditions kept us away. We had to settle for seeing it on DVD, where it worked very well.

This isn't the film for everyone. It was produced 70 years ago, and it shows it's age. The subtitles are often white-on-white. However, I still recommend Mamele. In the first half of the 20th Century, Yiddish theatre and movies had an important place in the U.S. entertainment world. Molly Picon was the best of the best. Here's a perfect opportunity to see her in action.