Mamele embraces the entire gamut of interwar Jewish life in Lodz--tenements and unemployed Jews, nightclubs and gangsters, religious Jews celebrating sukkot--but the film belongs to Molly Picon who romps undaunted through her dutiful daughter role saving siblings, keeping the family intact, singing and acting her way through the stages of a woman's life from childhood to old age.
Starring real-life mother and daughter Ester-Rokhl Kaminska and Ida Kaminska, this film is a precursor to the 1937 classic, The Dybbuk, featuring the same classic tale of frustrated love and destiny and the breaking/fulfillment of vows.
