Molly (also known as The Goldbergs) is a 1950 American comedy film directed by Walter Hart and written by Gertrude Berg and N. Richard Nash. It is based on Berg's radio and television dramedy The Goldbergs, which aired from 1929 to 1956. The film stars Gertrude Berg, Philip Loeb, Eli Mintz, Eduard Franz, Larry Robinson and Arlene McQuade. It was released on December 23, 1950, by Paramount Pictures.
Contents
Plot
Molly Goldberg welcomes an old beau to town, who is accompanied by his much younger fiancée. Molly invites her to join her evening music-appreciation classes, where the woman and the teacher exhibit a strong attraction to one another, leaving Molly to find ways to subtly intervene.
Cast
Gertrude Berg as Molly Goldberg
Philip Loeb as Jake Goldberg
Eli Mintz as Uncle David
Eduard Franz as Alexander 'Abie' Abel
Larry Robinson as Sammy Goldberg
Arlene McQuade as Rosalie Goldberg
Betty Walker as Mrs. Bertha Kramer
Sarah Krohner as Tante Elka
David Opatoshu as Mr. Dutton
Barbara Rush as Debby Sherman
Peter Hansen as Ted Gordon
Helen Brown as Mrs. Morris
Edit Angold as Mrs. Schiller
Josephine Whittell as Mrs. Van Nest
Shari Robinson as Nomi
Ernő Verebes as Mr. Mendell
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Thomas M. Pryor wrote: "[T]he picture tells a simple story about wholesome, unsophisticated people who live a normal life and share all their joys and anxieties within the confines of our strongest bastion, the home. The Goldbergs, product of the Bronx, U. S. A., are the same sort of lovable, solid citizens on the screen as they have been on the radio for fifteen years and, more recently, on the stage and in television. ... A carping critic might observe that the film ... is no more than an animated transcription of a radio script, but why fly in the face of Molly's wonderful malapropisms?"
Critic Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "'Molly,'—as this frankly sentimental family saga is now called—is really one of the nicest pictures in months. Especially if you are receptive to a change of pace and willing to adapt yourself to a technique quite unabashedly that of the talkative TV screen. ... Molly's malapropisms gain, if anything, by issuing from the larger screen."