36 | JANUARY 14 • 2021

Plying similar terrain is Harry
Tomashevsky’s The Yiddish
King Lear (1935), in which a
possessive patriarch’s insistent
steering of his daughters’ lives
(he says early on that women
should be “ornaments”) sheds
light on some troubling flipsides
to strict insistence on tradition.
The film, based on the play
of the same name, is heavy on
melodrama, as are several simi-
lar entries in the set all set in the
U.S.: Eli Eli, Motel the Operator,
Her Second Mother and Three
Daughters (the last one, made
in 1950, effectively marked the
end of the Yiddish film produc-
tion era in the U.S.). But even in
their modest aspirations, these
films showcase a broader range
of works made by and about the
American Jewish diaspora.
Particularly strong in this is
1940’s American Matchmaker,
a tender and sly musical com-
edy by Edgar G. Ulmer (his

fourth Yiddish film, made five
years prior to his best-known
work, the vicious noir Detour).
Nat Silver, a serial New York
bachelor reeling from an eighth
broken engagement, turns to
matchmaking as a profession so
he can better understand just
what makes a marriage. He inev-
itably falls for a client as those
around him work to steer him
toward success.
This feathery premise, along
with splendid casting and its
considered direction, grant
Matchmaker a surprising ability
to disarm. Casually showcas-
ing generations of diasporic
Jewish experience and varying
approaches to immigrant life
— evidenced by meek Nat’s cod-
dling, more traditional-minded
mother and his worldly, barb-
tongued sister — it’s the small
details in casting, writing and
performance that allow the
film to accumulate unexpected

power.
These Yiddish films, like the
language they embrace, are
filled with the spirit of persever-
ance — artistic expressions of a
people who narrowly escaped
being entirely snuffed out. Taken
together, their cohesion across
wide gulfs makes a startlingly

concrete case for the potency of
shared society, identity and cul-
ture, capturing at the same time
the essence of much preserved
and lost.

‘The Jewish Soul: Ten Classics of
Yiddish Cinema’ (with English and
Hebrew subtitles) is available for pur-
chase online at kinolorber.com.

YIDDISH FILMS continued from page 35

KINO LORBER

American

Matchmaker

TANYA ROBERTS R.I.P.;
BYE 2020; MORE SHELDON
As I write this (Jan. 5), actress
Tanya Roberts has just died.
On Jan. 3, there were erro-
neous reports she had just
died. Her boyfriend, Lance
O’Brien, thought a hospital
representative said she was
dead, when really the rep
was telling him her condi-
tion was grave. O’Brien told
Roberts’ publicist that she
died, and the publicist told
the media. On Jan. 4, O’Brien
was talking to Inside Edition
when the hospital called him
and told him Roberts was
alive. He burst into tears on
camera. But she died later
that evening.
Roberts had some good
roles: she was an “angel”
in the last season (1981)
of Charlie’s Angels: she

co-starred in the cult fantasy
classic The Beastmaster
(1982) opposite actor Marc
Singer, now 72; she was the
“Bond Girl” in A View to a Kill
(1985); and she was a cast
member of That ’70s Show.
She played the mother of
lead character Donna (Laura
Prepon, 40) from 1998-2001.
Years later, she revealed
she left the series because
her husband, writer Barry
Roberts, was terminally ill
with encephalitis. Barry, like
Tanya, was from the Bronx.
A source who knew Barry in
high school told me he was
Jewish. Barry and Tanya wed
in 1974. She nursed him for
five years until he died in
2006.
Tanya’s death led to some
record-checking by me. For
decades, her bios repeat-
ed the same thing — that
she was born in 1955, the
daughter of a Jewish mother
and Irish father. Turns out
that Tanya, born Victoria
Blum, was born in 1949. Her

father, Oscar Blum, was
Jewish. Her mother, Dorothy
Smith, was English, and it’s
unclear if she was Jewish. I
don’t fault Roberts for shav-
ing six years off her age in
youth-obsessed Hollywood.
The Amazon Prime spe-
cial Yearly Departed, which
began streaming Dec. 30, is
worth your time. It features
seven female comedians
speaking at a mock funeral
for 2020, a truly bad year.
The show’s creator, Bess
Kalb, 33, says it was inspired
by a remark by the late

Christopher Hitchens, who
said: Women aren’t funny.
Not every joke in the show
is hilarious, but they hit more
than they miss. Starring
are Sarah Silverman, 50,
Natasha Leggero, 47, and
Tiffany Haddish, 41, plus hon-
orary tribe member Rachel
Brosnahan (Mrs. Maisel).
The fourth season of CBS’
comedy Young Sheldon,
a spin-off of The Big Bang
Theory, resumes Jan. 13
(8 p.m.). The episode finds
Sheldon, now 11, starting
college. Wallace Shawn, 77,
who has a recurring role as
Dr. Sturgis, Sheldon’s mentor,
has a prominent role in this
episode. The season’s pre-
miere revealed that the adult
Sheldon Cooper named his
son Leonard, in honor of his
friend, Dr. Leonard Hofstader.
Sheldon wanted to also
honor his favorite actor and
name his son Leonard Nimoy
Cooper. But this was vetoed
by his wife, Amy (Mayim
Bialik, 45).

ARTS&LIFE
CELEBRITY JEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

IMDB

Tanya
Roberts