AllMovie

Maurice Schwartz, the theatrical impresario who did more than anyone else to introduce the works of Yiddish author/playwright Sholom Alecheim to the American public, both produced and starred in the Yiddish-language film Tevye (aka Tevya). Schwartz plays the title role, a philosophical milkman in the small Jewish-Ukrainian ghetto community of Anatevka (recreated in the Long Island community of Jericho). Tevye is "blessed" with five marriageable daughters, one of whom, Chave (Miriam Reselle), defies his wishes and falls in love with Fedia (Leon Liebgold), an intellectual gentile. This plot should sound familiar to anyone who's ever seen the stage or film hit Fiddler on the Roof, which was based on several Alecheim short stories. Long believed lost, Tevye was rediscovered and restored in 1978.