{{Infobox film | image = Poster_for_Mamele_film_1938.jpg | name = Mamele | writer = Konrad Tom <br/> Meyer Schwartz | starring = Molly Picon<br/>Edmund Zayenda | director = Joseph Green & <br/>Konrad Tom | studio = Green Films | country = Poland | released = {{Film date|1938|12|24}} | runtime = 97 minutes | language = Yiddish }} '''''Mamele''''' ({{langx|yi|מאמאלע}} {{langx|pl|Mateczka}}) is a Yiddish Language Polish musical film made in 1938.
==Synopsis== Set in Łódź, the film revolves around Khavtshi Samet (Picon), a Cinderella figure, who has taken on maternal responsibility for her family after the death of her mother — hence the title, ''Mamele'', or 'little mother.' Khavtshi is required to shop, cook and clean up after her unappreciative family. Furthermore, she must keep her siblings out of trouble: her younger brother gets mixed up with crooks and her sister Berta (Bullman) has eyes for the gangster Maks Katz (Menashe Oppenheim). Eventually Khavtshi's morale breaks, and she moves in with the handsome musician Schlesinger (Zayenda) across the courtyard. In this period of distress Khavtshi imagines the life of her grandmother in a dream-like song and dance sequence. The Samet family begs for Khavtshi to return, which she does with Schlesinger. The film closes with Khavtshi busy preparing the feast during her wedding.<ref name=MollyMetJoe>{{cite book|author1=Chaim Pevner|editor1-last=Paskin|editor1-first=Sylvia|title=When Joseph met Molly: A Reader on Yiddish Film|date=1999|publisher=Five Leaves|isbn=9780907123927|chapter=Joseph Green, the visionary of the golden age}}</ref>
==Cast== *Molly Picon as Khavtshi Samet *Edmund Zayenda as Schlesinger *Max Bozyk as Berl Samet *Gertrude Bullman as Berta Samet *Simche Fostel as Nadirman *Ola Shlifko as Jentka Samet *Menashe Oppenheim as Maks Katz *Karol Latowicz as Zeisher *Max Perelman as Dawid Samet *Ruth Turkow as Bailchi *Lew Szrftzecer as Konchicker
==Production== Mamele marks the second collaboration between Green and Picon after their success with Yiddle with His Fiddle. Green, by then an American citizen, was in Europe preparing for filming of ''A Letter to Mother,'' when Picon's husband (and manager) proposed that the two should make another film.<ref name=MollyMetJoe /> Picon suggested to adapt the play of ''Mamele'' which she had performed years before onstage and although Green was reluctant to make a film based on a play, he eventually agreed.<ref name=Laughter>{{cite book|last1=Goldberg|first1=Judith N.|title=Laughter Through Tears: The Yiddish Cinema|date=1983|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|location=London|isbn=9780838630747}}</ref> Green convinced the cast and crew of ''A Letter to Mother'' to hold off production for some time and ''Mamele'' was filmed in six weeks in the fall of 1938, mostly in Warsaw with some exteriors shot in Ciechocinek.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goldman|first1=Eric A.|title=Visions, images, and dreams: Yiddish film past and present|date=1983|publisher=UMI Research Press|location=Ann Arbor|isbn=9780835715157|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/visionsimagesdre00gold}}</ref> Green took great care to show many aspects of typical shtetl life, depicting holidays, nightclubs, unemployment and gangsterism.
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/mamele.htm Mamele at the National Center for Jewish Film] *{{IMDb title|id=0030407|title=Mamele}}
Category:1938 musical comedy films Category:1938 films Category:1930s Polish films Category:Polish black-and-white films Category:Films about Jews and Judaism Category:Yiddish-language films Category:Yiddish-language mass media in Poland Category:Polish musical comedy films Category:Films set in Łódź