East and West

Robert Brown (formerly Brauner), a successful New York businessman, returns to the “Old Country” to attend his niece’s wedding. He takes his daughter, Molly, whose New World mannerisms soon clash with her Eastern European family’s traditional ways. Molly stages a mock wedding of her own but, ignorant of custom, winds up married to timid Talmud student Ruben. Forbidden by tradition to divorce Ruben immediately, Molly returns to America. Ruben, secretly in love with Molly, 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. Behind its slapstick exterior, lies a pertinent social satire reflecting worldly Jews as they encounter traditional shtetl life. New digital restoration courtesy of the Austrian Film Archive.