His Wife's Lover (Zayn Vaybs Lubovnik) DVD

Billed as the "first Jewish musical comedy talking picture," His Wife’s Lover stars the popular Yiddish theater comedian Ludwig Satz in one of his only surviving film performances. This fast-paced, song-filled comedy benefits from location camerawork of New York City’s Lower East Side and solid direction from Sidney Goldin, director of East and West (1923), Uncle Moses (1932) and The Cantor’s Son (1937), features previously restored by NCJF. With a script by a female author, Sheyne Rokhl Simkoff, His Wife’s Lover revels in its role reversals and love triangles all the while exploring the gender issues of its day. 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.

USA, 1931, 80 minutes,
B&W, Yiddish with new English subtitles
Directed by Sidney M. Goldin