This essay is part of the Forward’s list of 125 greatest Jewish movie scenes. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. Comedy was never Sidney Lumet’s strong suit. If there was any ...

Friends gather for the funeral of a friend. Sub-plots unfold as the group attempts to link-up to attend the funeral of their friend, Braverman.

Lovingly adapted from Wallace Markfield’s novel, Lumet’s comedy details the adventures of four Jewish intellectuals venturing from Manhattan to a Brooklyn funeral. The shtick isn’t subtle, ...

Wallace Markfield’s novel, To An Early Grave, was a bitter, satirical dissection of Manhattan’s middle-class Jewish intellectuals, a book peopled by the kind of quarrelsome critics and lecturers who ...