Meshugge

It is virtually impossible to translate a short story into a quality film. A good short story captures a brief glimpse of the human condition, turns on a fleeting moment of confrontation or revelation; a movie derived from such a microcosm is usually afflicted with a bad case of inflation. Take The Swimmer, John Cheever's mythic pool odyssey. One of the finest short stories in a generation, it was magnified into one of the worst movies.

Similar misfortune has befallen The Angel Levine, Bernard Malamud's pithy and whimsical parable of an elderly Jewish tailor and his war with God. In the film Zero Mostel portrays Mishkin, a decrepit, latter-day Job on whom God has visited terrible plagues. His Manhattan shop has burned to the ground while insufficiently insured. His wife Fanny (Ida Kaminska) is on her death bed and driving him meshugge (crazy) with petty demands. His back is killing him and--ah, cruel Jehovah!--his only daughter has married an Italian. His faith is moribund, and to revive it an unlikely angel descends from above. He is a newly dead Jewish Negro named Alexander Levine (Harry Belafonte) who says a lot of hip, dirty words that Mishkin does not understand, but who also pleads with the old tailor: "Man, I'm an angel, and you'd better believe it, 'cause I'm the only one you're ever gonna get."

The early scenes contain some wildly funny dialogue--most of which has been taken directly from Malamud's story. Mostel is especially entertaining doing the tailor-on-the-roof routine that is his forte. But even Zero's comic genius cannot carry the lugubrious sermonizing about black-Jewish relationships and the mawkish comedy that goes with it. In a reverse insult, Levine calls Mishkin "nigger," to which Mishkin replies, "This is the way a Jewish angel talks?"

Another distressing note is a persistent background wail that is apparently music supposed to heighten the film's dramatic impact. Instead, the sound evokes visions of some poor soul being tortured in the Tower of London by Vincent Price. The film's ultimate effect, as Mishkin would say, is enough to drive an audience meshugge.

sbMark Goodman

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.