''Tevya'' is a 1939 American

Yiddish film Yiddish cinema ( yi, יידישע קינא, יידיש-שפראכיגע קינא; trans. ''Idish-Sprakhige Kino'', ''Idishe Kino'') refers to the Yiddish language film industry which produced some 130 full-length motion pictures and 30 short durin ...

, based on author Sholem Aleichem's stock character

Tevye the Dairyman Tevye the Dairyman, also translated as Tevye the Milkman ( yi, טבֿיה דער מילכיקער, ''Tevye der milkhiker'' ) is the fictional narrator and protagonist of a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem, and various adaptations of th ...

, also the subject of the 1964 musical ''

Fiddler on the Roof ''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on ''Tevye and his Daughters'' (or ''Tevye the ...

''.Turner Classic Movies
/ref> It was the first non-English language picture selected for preservation by the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...

Cast

* Maurice Schwartz as Tevya * Miriam Riselle as Chava * Rebecca Weintraub as Golde * Paula Lubelski as Tzeitel * Leon Liebgold as Fedya * Vicki Marcus as Shloimele * Betty Marcus as Perele * Julius Adler as Aleksei the Priest

Production

The script was adapted by Marcy Klauber and Schwartz from Sholem Aleichem's play based on his own book. Schwartz directed the film, which was based on two works by Schwartz from 1919: the silent film '' Broken Barriers'' (''Khavah'') and the stage production of ''Tevye''.''Laughter Through Tears: The Yiddish Cinema'' by Judith N Goldberg. 1983. . p.97-98. The production was filmed at

Biograph Studios Biograph Studios was an early film studio and laboratory complex, built in 1912 by the Biograph Company at 807 East 175th Street, in The Bronx, New York City, New York. History Early years The first studio of the Biograph Company, formerly ...

in New York City and on a farm in Jericho, New York. Midway through the shooting of the film, Hitler seized Danzig on August 23, 1939, and a Nazi invasion of Poland was imminent. These and other events in Europe affected the actors, many of whom had family in Poland. The filming, however, was completed.Frieden, Ken, "A Century in the Life of Sholem Aleichem's ''Tevye''" (1993). Syracuse University. Paper 46. The story focuses primarily on Sholem Aleichem's stories "Chava" and "Lekh-Lekho (Get Thee Out)" but provides a definite ending rather than Sholom Aleichem's ambiguous ending. In this version of ''Tevya'', as the Jews are expelled from their shtetl, Chava who previously converted to Christianity to marry, leaves her husband, returns to her family and to Judaism. It is felt that the antisemitism of the time influenced Schwartz to provide this ending.

Rediscovery

Long thought to be a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...

, a print was discovered in 1978. The same story was the basis of the 1964 stage musical ''

'' and its 1971 film version, but the fate of Chava in the ending was changed for the change in attitudes by that time. In 1991, ''Tevya'' was the first non-English language film to be named "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and selected for preservation in the

References

External links

*''Tevye'' essa

by

J. Hoberman James Lewis Hoberman (born March 14, 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, author and academic. He began working at ''The Village Voice'' in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic ...

*''Tevye'' essay by Daniel Eagan in

America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 302-304. * * Marat Grinberg
Rolling in Dust: Maurice Schwartz's Tevye (1939) And Its Ambiguities
* Thomas Pryor,

',

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

, 30 July 1939. * ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4CqthipSg0&t=1001s ''Tevya'' (1939)full movie on Youtube {{Films about Orthodox and Hasidic Jews 1939 films 1939 drama films 1930s independent films United States National Film Registry films American black-and-white films Films about Jews and Judaism Films based on short fiction Yiddish-language films 1930s rediscovered films Adaptations of works by Sholem Aleichem American drama films Films about Orthodox and Hasidic Jews Rediscovered American films 1930s American films

Cast

Production

Rediscovery

See also

References

External links