Potash and Perlmutter

Set against the frantic, lint-choked backdrop of New York’s burgeoning garment district, Potash and Perlmutter is a sophisticated character study masquerading as a mercantile comedy. Abe Potash and Morris Perlmutter, partners whose relationship oscillates between fraternal devotion and litigious exasperation, navigate the precarious waters of the cloak-and-suit trade. Their equilibrium is disrupted by the introduction of Boris Andrieff, a Russian émigré whose virtuosic command of the violin stands in stark contrast to his utilitarian role as a fitter within their atelier. When Boris kindles a clandestine romance with Abe’s daughter, Irma, he ignites a generational and class-based conflagration; Abe, envisioning a more lucrative union with the affluent barrister Feldman, views the musician with skepticism. The narrative takes a harrowing turn toward the noir when a labor agitator is felled by a gunshot on the company’s floor, casting Boris into the crucible of the legal system. As the specter of scandal threatens to dissolve the partners’ commercial empire, the film deftly maneuvers through themes of loyalty, the immigrant struggle, and the eventual reconciliation of artistic passion with bourgeois pragmatism, culminating in a hard-won matrimonial benediction.