The Bespoke Overcoat

Inspired by Nicolai Gogol’s famous short story, Wolf Mankowitz’s The Bespoke Overcoat is by turns a deeply comic and unforgettably poignant reimagining of Gogol’s most famous classic tale, The Overcoat. Reset by Mankowitz into the Jewish East End of London, this story about an old clerk who can’t afford a new overcoat is a tale of love and resilience told with dignity and humor. Immediately hailed as one of Britain’s most exciting young playwrights when the play opened in London in 1953, Mankowitz adapted it into a film that won the Oscar at the 29th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject Film in 1957. The son of a Jewish bookseller in London’s East End, Mankowitz was a prolific dramatist, novelist, and screenwriter often know for depicting acts of humanity in a flawed but facinating world.