Molly Picon Movies
Pixieish singer-comedienne Picon began her career in the Yiddish theatre at age 6 in her native Philadelphia. After Picon's New York debut at the Arch Street theatre in 1912, she ascended to stardom with the Second Avenue Yiddish Stage, then toured vaudeville in an act called The Four Seasons. Such was her popularity in the 1920s that many of her stage vehicles had the name "Molly" incorporated in their titles; in 1931, she opened a theatre bearing her name. In films from the silent era, Molly is most fondly remembered for her Yiddish-language vehicles of the 1930s. Her all-time best feature was 1936's Yidl with the Fiddle, a captivating musical directed on location in Poland by Joseph Green; Molly was never more charming than as the itinerant Jewish musician who disguises herself as a boy to fend off unwanted male advances. Back in the U.S. when war broke out, Picon made her English-language stage debut in 1940. She alternated between the Yiddish and "mainstream" stage throughout the 1950s and 1960s; on Broadway, she starred in Neil Simon's first play Come Blow Your Horn and in the 1961 musical Milk and Honey. It was in the film version of Come Blow Your Horn that Picon first spoke English on the big screen (she had previously made several delightful TV appearances, notably in the recurring role of unflappable Bronx widow Mrs. Bronson on Car 54, Where are You?) Among her very few film roles of the 1970s was Yente the Matchmaker in 1971's Fiddler on the Roof. The widow of Yiddish stage star Jacob Adler (who had been one of her first theatrical directors), Molly Picon summed up her life, work and philosophy in her two volumes of memoirs, So Laugh a Little and The Sound of Laughter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
(Burt Reynolds) as J.J. McClure takes off across the country again in this rickety sequel to Cannonball Run. A sheik has offered $1,000,000 to the first driver to reach a destination in Connecticut from Redondo Beach, California, inspiring J.J. and others to go for the gold. With cameos from more name performers than any dozen films together, (Frank Sinatra and the rat pack, Telly Savalas, Susan Anton, Shirley MacLaine, Jackie Chan, Sid Caesar, Marilu Henner, Catherine Bach, etc., etc., etc.), the movie becomes a pastiche and is executed as though no rehearsals were required, or ever happened. A disparate group of people racing to get a lot of money was first successfully exploited in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, a much better film, and with just as many cameos, in fact. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, (more)
- 1984
In this tender children's drama, a little girl attempts to cope with the fact that her beloved grandmother is becoming senile. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Burt Reynolds and director Hal Needham team up for the fourth time, this time bringing an all-star cast of characters on a cross-country car race in the vein of 1976 release The Gumball Rally. The police are the least of the Cannonballers' worries as they push the pedal to the metal in a race from Connecticut to California. Reynolds stars as J.J. McClure, a speed-loving racer disguised as an ambulance driver to outsmart the police. He is paired up with Dom Deluise, who plays his dimwitted sidekick Victor and who, on occasion, dons the suit of Captain Chaos. Rat Packers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. join the lineup as Ferrari-driving priests, while martial arts expert Jackie Chan takes on one of his first U.S. film roles driving a souped-up Subaru. Among the many other stars are Roger Moore doing a parody of his 007 character, complete with secret devices and weapons, Farrah Fawcett as Pamela, a woman McClure and Chaos pick up, and Jamie Farr as a deranged Islamic sheik. Jack Elam joins the cast as a crazed proctologist along for McClure's ambulance ride, and Needham makes a cameo as a patient. ~ Rachel Koetje, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, (more)
While bound for London from New York, the occupants of a 747 are terrorized by a mad bomber. The jet's pilot (Robert Stack) and several brave passengers must thwart the plot. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
Barbra Streisand returns to the screwball-comedy milieu of What's Up Doc? in the lightweight For Pete's Sake. As a Brooklyn hausfrau named Henry (!), our heroine will do anything to help her cabdriver husband Pete (Michael Sarrazin) get ahead. When Pete begins to play the stock market, Henry borrows three grand from a loan shark, thereby setting off a series of comic catastrophes. Molly Picon is perfection itself as a money-savvy madam who holds the key to Pete and Henry's happiness and well-being. For Pete's Sake was originally titled July Pork Bellies, a curious cognomen that makes perfect sense within the context of the plotline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbra Streisand, Michael Sarrazin, (more)
Norman Jewison's adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical is set in the Ukranian ghetto village of Anatevka (the film was actually lensed in Yugoslavia). Israeli actor Topol repeats his London stage role as Tevye the milkman, whose equilibrium is constantly being challenged by his poverty, the prejudicial attitudes of non-Jews, and the romantic entanglements of his five daughters. Whenever the weight of the world becomes too much for him, Tevye carries on lengthy conversations with God, who does not answer but is at least more willing to listen than the milkman's remonstrative wife Golde. After arranging a marriage between his oldest daughter Tzeitel and wealthy butcher Lazar Wolf, Tevye is forced to do some quick rearranging when the girl falls in love with poor tailor Motel Kamzoil. Fancying himself more broad-minded than his gentile oppressors, Tevye cannot accept the notion that his other daughter Chava would want to marry Fyedka, a non-Jew. And after shouting the praises of "tradition," Tevye must change his tune-and his entire life-when he and his neighbors are forced out of Anatevka by the Czar's minions. Topol's co-stars include Norma Crane as Golde, Yiddish theater legend Molly Picon as Yente the matchmaker, and Leonard Frey as Motel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Topol, Norma Crane, (more)
- 1963
This filmization of Neil Simon's first Broadway hit was adapted for the screen by Norman Lear. Once we get past the illogical casting of middle-aged Frank Sinatra and twentysomething Tony Bill as brothers, we're home free. Sinatra, a swinger supreme, uses his New York apartment as a harem of sorts for his legion of lady friends. Bill, wishing to break loose from his protective parents (Lee J. Cobb and Molly Picon), moves in with older brother Sinatra, hoping to emulate his sibling in the sex department. Sinatra teaches Bill the tricks of the trade--to his everlasting regret, since Bill soon wins such prizes as Jill St. John and Barbara Rush away from Sinatra. The third act finds Sinatra behaving more like a parent than his parents, steering Bill on the straight and narrow and finally settling down with Rush. Also appearing in Come Blow Your Horn is singer Phyllis McGuire (an offscreen Sinatra vis-a-vis), Dan Blocker, and, in the uncredited role of a wino, Dean Martin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Lee J. Cobb, (more)
- 1938
The always-delightful Yiddish stage star Molly Picon heads the cast of the ethnic musical comedy Mamele. The title translates as "Little Mother", a perfect description for young Chacchi (Picon), who takes care of her two sisters and widowed father. Unappreciately by her boorish family, Chacchi seeks out happiness elsewhere, leading to her loved ones' realization that they can't get along without her. The material was old hat even in 1939; indeed, the film was a remake of a 1926 Picon vehicle. Still, the project stays afloat on the sheer charisma of its effervescent star, whose song numbers are the film's uncontested highlights. The only unhappy aspect is the viewer's after-the-fact realization that the colorful Jewish lifestyle depicted in Mamele was doomed to extinction at the hands of the Nazis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Molly Picon, Edmund Zayenda, (more)
- 1937
Silent-film leading man (and third husband of Mary Pickford) Charles "Buddy" Rogers was a popular band leader at the time he appeared in the British Let's Make a Night of It. Here's the deal: Buddy owns a nightclub; his wife June Clyde runs a rival night spot. That's about it for the plot. The main attraction of Let's Make a Night of It is its cornucopia of guest stars, including impressionist Afrique, legendary Yiddish stage star Molly Picon, and band leaders Jack Jackson, Jack Harris, Sydney Lipton, Joe Loss, Eddie Carroll, Harry Acres and Rudy Starita (all major names on the British entertainment scene of 1937). Let's Make a Night of It was inspired by Henrik N. Ege's radio play The Silver Spoon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Buddy" Rogers, June Clyde, (more)
- 1923
This film features the work of former vaudevillian and Hollywood actress Molly Picon. It chronicles the ensuing culture class between "Westernized" Jews and their very traditional relatives. Modern young Picon, an American Jew, creates quite a stir when she appears in the "cat's meow" of 1920's fashion during her cousin Zelda's very traditional wedding in Austria. Mollie continues to generate scandal as she shares her modern antics with the reserved traditionals around her including teaching the cantor's male congregation how to do the shimmy. She participates in a pseudo-wedding with Jacob, a student of the Talmud, but does not understand what subsequently happens to him. She especially does not understand when Jacob refuses to divorce her, even though the marriage was never consummated. He wants to wait five years. She agrees. At the end of that time Joseph has become a famed author and Mollie has become a fallen woman who does not discover that she really loves her husband until the very end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Molly Picon, Jacob Kalish, (more)
