This film was a wonderful vehicle for the talents of Danny Kaye who played a serious, dramatic role instead of the typical zany comedic parts he usually performed. Franz Werfel,a Jew who had to flee Nazi Germany, wrote the drama on which this film is based and used much humor(especially in the relationship between Jakobowsky and the Colonel) to take on a serious subject: anti-semitism in Europe during World War II.In order to do this, he had to create stereotypes, which is common in comedy.
A similar stereotyping is done in Mussorgsky's piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition" in the part called "Samuel Goldenberg and Schmyl." However, instead of satirizing two Jews, Werfel was making fun of the differences between an anti-semitic Polish aristocrat and a bourgeois Jewish Pole who has the gift of being a survivor. Perhaps, because of this, the reception of the film has been cool. It has never been released on laser disc or DVD in the U.S. and is seldom seen on television. However, it is available in Germany on DVD in anamorphic 16x9 format, PAL Region 2 encoding.
A similar stereotyping is done in Mussorgsky's piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition" in the part called "Samuel Goldenberg and Schmyl." However, instead of satirizing two Jews, Werfel was making fun of the differences between an anti-semitic Polish aristocrat and a bourgeois Jewish Pole who has the gift of being a survivor. Perhaps, because of this, the reception of the film has been cool. It has never been released on laser disc or DVD in the U.S. and is seldom seen on television. However, it is available in Germany on DVD in anamorphic 16x9 format, PAL Region 2 encoding.