I don't recall whether I saw this movie when it came out thirty years ago. if I did, it bored me. But I watched it just now because its reputation has lasted or even grown. I also watched another movie of Avraham Heffner's twice-- "But Where is Daniel Wax?"-- because it was held in such high regard and I felt I might have missed something the first time.
I'm American-born, and in the case of "Daniel Wax," the first time I couldn't get past my irritation at the plot element that portrays an Israeli singer having come to America and become a big success as if the Americans were so easy to impress. Oddly, much the same element is present in "Laura Adler": An American movie producer is struck by the talent of an Israeli actress and is eager to cast her even though she's performing in Yiddish and the producer can't understand a word. Worse yet, whereas in "Daniel Wax" we do get to see the singer do his stuff, and he's not bad, in "Laura Adler" the actress is seen in a mediocre play that doesn't exactly give her the chance to shine.
Everyone buzzes around Laura Adler like moths around a flame, but what's missing is the flame in the center of the central character. We don't get the impression of a grande dame of the Yiddish theater. The Yiddish theater itself, on the other hand, is (as far as I can tell) portrayed believably and affectionately, and it's a fairly big part of the movie. The plot works well once it gets going, although I had problems at the beginning figuring out who is who-- maybe partly because time has not been kind to the print. A curtain of shadow covered a lot.
If the craze for remakes ever hits Israel, I'd be pleased to see a remake of "Laura Adler" with Laura's talent, which has to be believed in order to drive the story, emphasized more credibly.
