This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.
This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.
1959-12-14
0
Based on the Writer Whose Stories Inspired The Fiddler on the Roof
Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.
In order to boost his own cotton ginning business, Jake Meighan sets the local Syndicate Plantation ablaze. the superintendent of the Syndicate Plantation sends over 27 wagons full of cotton for ginning, and turns aside his suspicions that Jake is the arsonist in exchange for apparent sexual favors from Jake's wife, Flora.
The tale of a lonely Southern woman's longing for her handsome next-door neighbor. At once tragic and romantic, the story is a reworking of the Williams play "Summer and Smoke," which uses the same characters and setting but in dramatically different ways.
Noble Moroccan Othello finds his life with beautiful, fiercely loyal Desdemona thrown tragically out of balance when secretly jealous, scheming confidante Iago begins an insidious campaign of lies and treachery.
An evocative and imaginative exploration of the racial tensions in Othello and how the themes in Shakespeare's play still resonate today.
A rehearsal is disrupted when six figures mysteriously appear on the stage, claiming to be fictional characters from an unfinished play searching for an author to tell their tragic story. An adaptation of the classic Luigi Pirandello play, updated to take place in a 1970s television studio.
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.
A love story about chance meetings, instant attractions, and casual betrayals. Four strangers - with one thing in common: each other.
Prince bon-vivant Levan Phantiashvili finds himself in a difficult financial situation. To make his life better he agrees to marry the merchant Adam Varakhidze’s daughter, Elo. The merchant is happy for this move opens the door in a high society for him until he finds out that Elo is not quite happy with his decision.
The story of a theatrical producer, his divorced wife and their four children.
Southern Baptist Sissies is the live film of the GLAAD Award winning play by Del Shores. Southern Baptist Sissies is the story of four boys who are gay growing up in the Southern Baptist Church and how they each deal differently with the conflict between the teachings of the church and their sexuality.
This live TV adaptation of the Broadway musical "Dearest Enemy" from 1925 is based on an American Revolutionary War incident in September 1776 when Mary Lindley Murray, under orders from General George Washington, detained General William Howe and his British troops by serving them cake, wine and conversation in her Kips Bay, Manhattan home long enough for some 4,000 American soldiers, fleeing their loss in the Battle of Brooklyn, to reassemble in Washington Heights and join reinforcements to make a successful counterattack.
Three separate stories all concern the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other. Each of the three parts takes place in the present, and each in a different country. Father is set in the Northeast U.S., Mother in Dublin, Ireland, and Sister Brother in Paris, France. The film is a series of character studies, quiet, observational and non-judgmental. A comedy, but interwoven with threads of melancholy.
A leukemia patient attempts to end a 20-year feud with her sister to get her bone marrow.
A young soprano becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House.
On an ordinary Moscow street, a family lives together in an unremarkable house: a mother and four children. But one "fine" day in this family there is a violent conflict over the furniture with which the apartment is packed. However, furniture is just an excuse. In fact, two worldviews collide, different ideas about life values...
A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.
Get ready for a wildly diverse, star-studded trilogy about life in the big city. One of the most-talked about films in years, New York Stories features the creative collaboration of three of America's most popular directors, Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, and Woody Allen.
The daughter of a senator from South Dakota visits Manhattan for the first time, eager to see the sights of the big city. While there, she finds herself caught up in an affair with a married man, whose wife soon commits suicide. Complications ensue.