"His Wife's Lover" is a 1931
Yiddish-language classic for good reason. It’s hailed as
the first Jewish musical comedy sound film and was
written by a woman, Sheyne Rokhl Simkoff (pen name Shin
Ra-Chell).
“Lover” stars comedian Ludwig Satz
as Eddie, a stage actor who sets out to prove that
honorable women exist. Three main characters provide the
conflict: Eddie, his woman-hating uncle, and
working-girl Goldie. Eddie disguises himself as an
intolerable elderly millionaire to see whether Goldie is
swayed by money. Satz plays the impression to its
extremes. Viewers and Goldie alike cringe at the sight
of him.
The story’s rom-com sensibility is
classic in its tropes: the invented identity, the bet
gone awry, the battle of the sexes and the use of
wordplay. “What good is my life if my wife loves me?”
Eddie asks, fist clenched and clothes disheveled. It’s
the kind of comedy that’s still accessible almost a
century later.
-- The Atlanta Jewish Times