Amerikaner Shadkn (The American Matchmaker)

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Summary

Nat Silver, transcending his sweatshop origins, becomes a debonair and fabulously wealthy man living on Central Park West. But Nat is unlucky in love and seemingly ambivalent about the opposite sex, a condition that we learn from his mother "runs in the family." Desperate after seven broken engagements, he reinvents himself as a match-maker, hoping at least to make others happy. This hilarious musical comedy made in 1940 reflects a period of "modernization" in American Jewish culture in which old world beliefs were reinterpreted to conform with the great American dream. Nat updates the anachronism of "Shadchan" (match-maker) to "Advisor in Marital Relations," opening his own "Human Relations Bureau" complete with psychologist and plush office.

AMERICAN MATCHMAKER has been restored with new English subtitles by The National Center for Jewish Film, www.jewishfilm.org

Vancouver Premiere

Year: 1940
Genre: Musical Comedy
Country: USA
Language: Yiddish, with English subtitles
Subject: Music
Run time: 87 minutes
Format: Beta SP

Director: Edgar Ulmer
Cast: Leo Fuchs, Judith Abarbanel, Judel Dubinsky