Comedian Harmonists

It has had a long run in San Francisco, despite lack of much publicity by the distributor, and can still be seen there at the Four Star Theater on Clement Street (415-666-3488). I will see it again for many reasons - humor, historical relevance, fine musical score, and excellent acting/cinematography. The plot shows accurately how many Germans stood up to the Nazi terror as well as they could, and the ending was somber but heart-warming. I'm not surprised that the word-of-mouth recommendations from viewers carried this film to such a long run.

Even though I have been addicted to the Comedian Harmonists ever since I nicked one of their records from my grandma's collection when I was an innocent little kid (which consequently caused me a great deal of social suffering, because my peers were into Kiss or Van Halen at a time when I was humming "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus"), I found it hard to sit through this movie. Vilsmaier is very adept at spotting interesting movie material (such as Stalingrad or Marlene Dietrich), at financing and marketing his productions, and signing up A - list actors; but his directing is wooden and painting - by - numbers, the movies themselves are tripe. If you are interested in the Comedian Harmonists I recommend you watch the 1976 documentary instead.

I love this movie, it is a wonderful movie. I cried when the Comedian Harmonists had to make their last show and they sang "Auf Wiedersehen, my dear". A fantastic movie with many beautiful songs, "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus" or "Irgendwo auf der Welt", just to mention two. See this movie!!!!

Throughout the 30s and 40s, everyone in Germany loved the Comedian Harmonists when they came over the radio, although it must have been the follow-up group rather than the original one. It is interesting and moving to see that original group and hear their songs again; and it illuminates once more the idiocy of the Nazis to silence and drive away such worthwhile people who felt as, and wanted to be, good Germans.

However, their confrontation with the Storm Troopers as shown in the movie, and presumably taking place in 1933, is an unfortunate exaggeration, because window smashing and physical abuse did not occur that early during the Nazi regime. Also, railway stations were not adorned with giant swastika flags - they would have turned black quickly from the soot of the steam engines. There was no need by the producers to deviate on these points from the historical accuracy - a deviation that throws a somewhat questionable light on the rest of the story.

Yet these producers did manage to find five men who sing beautifully, with the same perfection and tonal range of the Comedian Harmonists, which makes this film eminently enjoyable after all.

Taken at face value, one would think that a film about a singing group called the "Comedian Harmonists" in the Berlin of the nineteen twenties, would be dull indeed. Not so.At two and a half hours, not once did my attention wander.The director, Joseph Vilsmaier, does such a magnificent job of telling the story of this very popular, German singing group, that I would have liked to have been there to hear them in person.The hedonism of Berlin in the twenties. The rise of the 'Brown Shirts', the vilification of the Jews, Vilsmaier captures it perfectly, without stooping to mawkish sentiment.Of course, this film is more than just a film about a very popular singing group. It's also about the evils of national-socialism, allowing men like Streicher (one of Hitler's most vicious jew-baiters - even the top Nazis didn't like the man), to grow and flourish. The look of the period is excellent. Each character is deftly drawn, while still not losing sight that primarily,it was a group. There's a wonderful scene towards the end where the 'Harmonists' sing in front of thousands of sailors. Tremendously stirring! One quibble: the Algonquin Hotel in New York, where the Harmonists stay, was not, as far as I know, located down near the Brooklyn Bridge.But that shouldn't detract anybody from going to see this wonderful film.