MOVIES
t r
The Sunset Gang'
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ow could anyone
doubt that Rhoda
Morgenstern's father
did not know a bissele
Yiddish?
Harold Gould, who is re-
membered most for his por-
trayal of Rhoda's pop in the
'70s, does know only a little
of the mama-loshen, but you
would never know it to hear
him speak his part in a new
film.
The Sunset Gang, a new
movie for Public Television's
American Playhouse series
to air in the spring, recently
filmed in Fort Lauderdale.
The setting is a south
Florida condo, where a group
of retired folks decide to
revive the fading language
of Yiddish by putting on a
play.
"I feel an intimacy with
the Yiddish language, even
though I can't speak it," Mr.
Gould said.
The actor, in his late 60s,
is a little pickier about the
roles he accepts these days.
He said he liked this story
for two reasons: he was glad
to see the return of Yiddish
and he liked having a
romantic lead.
During the course of the
play Mr. Gould's married
character becomes roman-
tically interested in a mar-
ried woman, who is also in-
volved,
in the play.
"Romances are not usually
about people in their 60s,"
Mr. Gould said.
Just hearing many of the
Yiddish words brought back
memories of his childhood
and of his grandparents.
Although he said Yiddish
was not spoken frequently in
his home, he knew "my
parents spoke Yiddish to
their parents. It felt right.
When I hear it, my body
says, `Umm, I want to speak
it.' "
"He's so good, I can't
believe he wasn't brought up
with it," said Hindi Dia-
mond, Mr. Gould's Yiddish
coach, who believes Yiddish
will always have a place in
the world, especially since
many young people are
returning to their roots.
Mr. Gould remembers
Yiddish entertainers who
had a large role in bringing
Yiddish words into the ver-
Linda Brockman is a staff
writer for the Miami Jewish
Tribune.
nacular. "Jewish actors who
were struggling to make it
brought their Jewishness
with them. If they had all
gone into the clothing busi-
ness, it would have been
different. But instead, many
Jews took Yiddish into the
media, stage and theater."
For Mr. Gould, acting
started with King
Ahasuerus. After Mr. Gould
played the part in a Hebrew
school Purim play, he got
hooked.
"My family tried to
discourage me. My mother
told me that acting wasn't
an honorable profession."
But Mr. Gould received his
masters and doctorate in
theater arts at Cornell Uni-
versity in Ithaca, N.Y., and
went on to teach drama
there and at UCLA and
Stanford University.
However, he couldn't escape
his desire to work on the
stage.
At 37, he performed his
stage debut in The Increased
Difficulty of Concentration.
His other stage perfor-
mances include I'm Not
Rappaport, Freud, and
House of Blue Leaves.
Although Sunset Gang is a
film, Mr. Gould said he likes
to perform in plays at least
once a year. "I definitely feel
more at home on the stage.
Stage is more satisfying,
more creative, more
challenging. There is space
for growth and in-
volvement."
His movies include The
Sting, The Front Page and
Silent Movie. He also played
a Jewish delicatessen owner
in the short-lived TV show
"Singer and Son," and can
be seen periodically on
"Golden Girls." His most re-
cent TV movie was Mrs.
Delafield Wants to Marry, in
which Mr. Gould again
played the romantic lead op-
posite Katherine Hepburn.
The story is about a romance
between a Jewish man and a
gentile woman.
In Sunset Gang, Doris
Roberts plays Mr. Gould's
wife and Tresa Hughes plays
his love interest. Ms.
Hughes and Mr. Gould are
both disillusioned with their
marriages and find they
have more in common with
each other than with their
spouses.
Although the story con-
tains Yiddish, Mr. Gould be-
lieves it will appeal to a wide
audience. "It is about rela-
tionships. It will hit home to
any group. ❑