East and West

This delightful comedy opens as Morris Brown, a New York gambler acquainted more with his checkbook than his prayer book, returns to Galicia with his very American daughter, Mollie (Molly Picon) for a family wedding. The bride, daughter of his religiously observant brother, and Mollie, whose exuberant antics fill the film, could not be more different. But Mollie unexpectedly meets her match, an engaging young yeshiva scholar who forsakes tradition and joins the secular world to win her heart.

East and West features classic scenes of Molly Picon lifting weights and boxing, teaching young villagers to shimmy, and stealing away from services to gorge herself before sundown on Yom Kippur. Underlying these hijinks is veteran filmmaker Goldin's affectionate portrayal of worldly Jews encountering traditional shtetl life.

Restoration and English intertitles by The National Center for Jewish Film, www.jewishfilm.org

Recorded music credit: Original musical score produced by Henry Sapoznik, performed by…