Joan Micklin Silver’s 1988 romantic comedy, Crossing Delancey, has made its arrival on 4K Ultra HD by way of The Criterion Collection. Following Hester Street, this was her second film about the Jewish-American experience in New York City.

Cinematographer Theo van de Sande supervised and approved Crossing Delancey‘s new 4K digital restoration. The visuals are accompanied by a 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Meanwhile, both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases are accompanied with an essay by critic Rachel Syme.

Bookstore manager Isabelle “Izzy” Grossman (Amy Irving) wants more with her life. Anton Maes (Jeroen Krabbé), a novelist, develops an interest in Izzy after walking into the store. However, Izzy’s bubbe, Ida Kantor (Reizl Bozyk) has other plans, hiring matchmaker Hannah Mandelbaum (Sylvia Miles). Izzy’s having no part of it but she agrees to meet with the Orthodox Jewish pickle seller Sam Posner (Peter Riegert). But as she learns more about Sam, she starts to think she’s too good for him and that his pickle stand won’t be enough to have the type of life she wants. Izzy doesn’t know how Sam had crushed on her for years from afar. Regardless, she sees Anton as the better option.

What she doesn’t know about Anton is that they are not two peas in the same pod. But where Izzy thinks of Anton as a suitable mate because of his status in New York, there’s more here than meets the eye. Much to Izzy’s surprise, Anton isn’t quite looking for a wife or girlfriend in as much as he is looking for an assistant to sleep with. That’s right–Anton is a narcissist. He’s probably more than just that, of course. Despite having introduced her friend Marilyn Cohen (Suzzy Roche) to Sam, Izzy now has second thoughts. Is it too late for a chance to get together with Sam? Perhaps not, as audiences soon learn.

Izzy idolizes New York’s literati and maybe she has an opportunity to still be a part of this scene. It just won’t be with Anton. But seeing as how Crossing Delancey comes to an end and a sequel was never made, we’ll never see what happens as her story continues.

Crossing Delancey previously aired as part of TCM’s Ashkenazi-centric programming on The Jewish Experience on Thursdays in January 2023. That’s when I watched the film for the first time. It makes sense when one looks at the reputation of the romantic comedy, which is very Jewish in nature and tone. Sticking with the Jewish themes for a moment, it served as the only film role for Yiddish theater star Reizl Bozyk. The actress soon returned to the stage, performing until her death in 1993.

It didn’t do all that well at the box office, bringing in only $16 million against a production budget of $4 million. Because of this, Crossing Delancey wasn’t at the top of my list for films to get a 4K UHD release, not that there’s anything wrong with that. What does surprise me is that The Criterion Collection release also marks the film’s first appearance on Blu-ray. At the end of the day, Crossing Delancey is a beautifully made Jewish romantic comedy.

Bonus Features

• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New program on the making of the film featuring actors Amy Irving and Peter Riegert and screenwriter Susan Sandler
• Audio interview from 1988 with director Joan Micklin Silver
• Trailer

DIRECTOR: Joan Micklin Silver
SCREENWRITER: Susan Sandler
CAST: Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, Jeroen Krabbé, Reizl Bozyk, Sylvia Miles, George Martin, John Bedford Lloyd, Amy Wright

Warner Bros. released Crossing Delancey in theaters on September 16, 1988. Grade: 4/5

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