I neither have the knowledge nor any reason to disagree with the careful, detailed comment above (or is it below) as to the mediocrity of most of this family's material, or any of the rest of the comment. I would simply say while interesting to know, the criticism is no reason at all not to see this movie. There just isn't that much easily accessible film on Yiddish or Jewish show biz, outside of some theatrical movies kicking around out there but not in Blockbusters. I worked in the Catskills in the summers of 1957 and 1958 and to me there is no subcategory of schlock (cheaply made) within Yiddish entertainment. It's all good, the good and the not so good, at least now that it's hardly available. Critical distinctions don't matter at this point, and certainly should not to younger people who are unfamiliar with but curious about the Yiddish genre. Sure, there were better actors and mediocre actors, better plays and unoriginal skits, performers with originality and marginal journeymen just able to earn enough to eat, and I say so what? See this film and get a taste of the unfamiliar. You probably have seen enough crap from Hollywood to last a life time and gotten nothing out of it; with The Komediant you'll at least see something different, a world of show biz that at one time was huge and now is mostly a memory.
Review of The Komediant
