User Reviews

This very dated comedy based upon an instantly dated Broadway hit deals with the obnoxious Harry Green, a man who knows all, does little and never shuts up. His daughter, Mary Brian, wants to elope with David Newell, and Green intends to stop it, going to see Newell's wealthy father (Albert Gran) and arriving at the most inopportune time. Green pesters garage employee Neil Hamilton to go to the races with him, getting him fired in the process. For some reason, Green wants to see his daughter paired up with Hamilton, constantly nagging him about doing better in life. The fact that anybody would want to speak to Green let alone patronize his job is beyond me because he is totally despicable even in attempting to be nice.

Taking every possible Jewish stereotype that ever existed and rushing it through a 70 minute movie, Paramount turns this into an eye rolling movie experience, probably dated in 1935 let alone 2020. This is the type of film that had me trying to avoid rolling my eyes because I was afraid if I did it so much they may get caught in the back of my head. It is that ridiculous and unfunny. Green and Brian do not come off as father and daughter in any way. The presence of Eugene Pallette in a small role raised this up a teeny notch for me. Otherwise, the whole film is just absolutely cringe-worthy.

Before he became a movie star, Edward G Robinson was a New York stage actor who had difficulty getting roles, so he teamed up with newspaperman Jo Swerling to write a play as a stage vehicle for himself. 'The Kibitzer', starring Robinson, was a modest Broadway hit. When Paramount bought the film rights, they didn't consider Edward G Robinson sufficiently well-known to star in the movie version of his own play ... so they cast Harry Green in the lead role.

For modern audiences, Harry Green is an embarrassment. In exactly the same way that Stepin Fetchit and Wllie Best played stereotypical Negro roles, Harry Green played a stereotypical Jewish character: a pushy, money-grubbing busybody. Just occasionally, Green's on-screen characters were sympathetic, as in 'This Day and Age', but they always embodied the worst stereotypes of Jewish behaviour and speech patterns.

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT. 'The Kibitzer' stars Harry Green as Ike Lazarus, the owner of a Manhattan cigar store which is also the local hangout for people with nothing better to do. Ike considers himself an expert on the stock market, card playing, horse racing, the lot. He seldom risks any money on these things, because his expertise is all hot air. Ike's daughter Josie is romantically involved with Bert Livingston, son of wealthy stockbroker James Livingston. When Ike learns that his daughter and Bert are planning to elope, he decides to warn Livingston.

Ike strolls into Livingston's brokerage house without an appointment, and promptly walks into an armed robbery. Bert (who isn't actually Livingston's son, but no matter) has embezzled funds, and is now holding Livingston at gunpoint. More by dumb luck than anything else, Ike knocks the gun out of Bert's hand. As a reward for saving his life, Livingston offers to let Ike in on a hot new stock issue, American Steel ... sure to make a big profit.

Ike is too much of a blowhard to admit that he hasn't the money to go halves with Livingston. Instead, he sells pieces of his half of the deal to all the working stiffs in his neighbourhood, promising them big profits. Ike rapidly becomes the local hero ... until American Steel opens its trading, and the shares start dropping rapidly. The ending is unexpected but believable, and quite funny. All ends happily as Josie marries that nice goyisher Eddie Brown.

There are some good laughs in 'The Kibitzer', but many of them are compromised by the extremely annoying personality of Harry Green. Edward G Robinson eventually proved his ability with comedy, and it would have been nice to see him in the role that he tailored for himself. I'll rate 'The Kibitzer' 7 out of 10.