The Dybbuk (1960)

Director: Sidney Lumet

The Dybbuk is a made for TV film adaptation of a classic Jewish folktale. The story is about a young Jewish man, Sender (Theodore Bikel) who loves a young Jewish woman, Leah (Carol Lawrence) but her father arranges her marriage with another man. The grief of this causes Sender to die, but his spirit passes into the body of his beloved on her wedding day. Rabbi Azrael (Ludwig Donath), who serves as our narrator through the beginning of the film, is charged with the task of exercising Sender’s Dybbuk (sometimes defined as a malicious spirit or demon who possesses the living) from Leah’s body.

Cast

Theodore Bikel

Sender

Sylvia Davis

Frade

Ludwig Donath

Rabbi Azrael

Vincent Gardenia

Nissen

Stefan Gierasch

Yonya

Theo Goetz

Meyer

Carol Lawrence

Leah

Eli Mintz

Nachmon

Jerry Rockwood

Ilya

Gene Saks

Mikoel