''Over the Brooklyn Bridge'' is a 1984 American
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film directed and produced by
Menahem Golan, written by Arnold Somkin, and starring Elliott Gould. It has the working title of ''My Darling Shiksa'', referring to a
Shiksa, a woman outside of the Jewish faith. The film depicts a Jewish man being forced to break up with his
gentile
Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym fo ...
girlfriend.
Plot
Alby Sherman is a Jewish man whose father died when he was young. He and his mother run a luncheonette in Brooklyn, but Alby has negotiated the purchase of an upscale restaurant in Manhattan, a project he cannot finance on his own. He asks his wealthy Uncle Benjamin to lend him the money. His uncle imposes only one requirement: he will lend Alby the money, but only if he leaves his "
shiksa" (gentile) girlfriend.
Cast
*
Elliott Gould as Alby Sherman
*
Margaux Hemingway as Elizabeth Anderson
*
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950†...
as Uncle Benjamin
*
Burt Young
Gerald Tommaso DeLouise (born April 30, 1940), known professionally as Burt Young, is an American actor, author and painter. He played Rocky Balboa's brother-in-law and best friend Paulie Pennino in the '' Rocky'' film series. He was nominated f ...
as Phil
*
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades. She appeared in numerous films. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ''A Patch o ...
as Becky Sherman
*
Carol Kane as Cheryl
*
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze ( ; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress. After being spotted at the age of four in New York City, she made her screen acting debut in the television film ''An Invasion of Privacy'' (1983). A leading role on the te ...
as Phil's Daughter (uncredited)
*
Robert Gossett as Eddie
Production
The film was budgeted at $4 million and scheduled for six weeks. Golan completed it in five weeks, $500,000 under budget.
[Andrew Yule, ''Hollywood a Go-Go: An Account of the Cannon Phenomenon'', Sphere Books, 1987, p. 33, ]
See also
*
List of films featuring diabetes
There is a body of films that include a character with diabetes as part of the plot. In the late twentieth century, most films' references to diabetes were minor. Characters with diabetes were developed in plots in which the disease "played a more ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
1984 films
Films set in New York City
Films set in Brooklyn
Films about Jews and Judaism
Golan-Globus films
1984 romantic comedy films
Films directed by Menahem Golan
Films scored by Pino Donaggio
American romantic comedy films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
United Artists films
Films produced by Menahem Golan
American interfaith romance films
Films produced by Yoram Globus
1980s English-language films
1980s American films
{{1980s-comedy-film-stub