AMERICAN MATCHMAKER (1940)

This Yiddish-language film directed by notable B-moviemaker Edgar G. Ulmer begins by showing wealthy young garment factory boss Nat Silver (Leo Fuchs) throwing yet another bachelor party as his friends comment that he is forever celebrating other people's marriages but never getting married himself. He's come close several times but he always discovers that his fiancées only want him for his money. Nat proceeds to sing an anti-female song to the assembled "gluttons and hooch hounds"—so-called by his butler Morris—and Nat's misogyny only solidifies when one of his clerks bursts in and threatens him with a gun for trying to steal his girl Shirley, who, the clerk informs him, only wants his money. This makes Nat give up on the idea of marriage for good until he hears a family story about his late Uncle Shya who, back in the old country, felt he was under a marriage curse and so, somewhat counter-intuitively, became a successful matchmaker. Inspired by this, Nat tells his mother and sister that he's decided to head back to Europe to contemplate his life. Instead, using the name Nat Gold, he gets an office in the Bronx and opens a modern matchmaking business. It's so successful that other more traditional matchmakers protest, though Nat deals with that by hiring Simon, one of the leading protesters, as his assistant. But when Nat tries to find a match for Judith Aarons (Judith Abarbanel), he slowly comes to realize that her best match might actually be him. This is an amusing romantic comedy with a good central performances by Fuchs (pictured)—often referred to as the Yiddish Fred Astaire, he's given a couple of songs, though I wouldn't go so far as to call this a musical which some critics do. He also briefly has a second role as Uncle Shya in a dream flashback. Celia Brodkin is Nat's old-fashioned mother and Anna Guskin is Nat's more modern sister. There's a funny running gag in which Nat refers to himself as an "advisor in human relations" and his assistant thinks the phrase is "human relishes." Minor but fun enough. Available on the Jewish Soul boxed set from Kino Lorber. (Also released as Amerikaner Schadchen.) [Blu-ray]