Netflix has this listed as The Harmonists instead of its original German name of The Comedian Harmonists. I assume the American distributors didn't want audiences unfamiliar with the group to mistake the movie for a comedy.

The Comedian Harmonists were a real German singing group that was wildly popular for a short time in the late 1920s to early 1930s. They appeared in concerts, radio, and phonograph recordings. Their greatest success was in Germany, but they also had international appeal and traveled to other countries, including America. The group was made up of five singers and a pianist. They sang complex multi-part arrangements of pop songs, jazz, traditional folk tunes, and original novelty pieces. They also threw in a gimmick of vocally imitating musical instruments on some of their numbers.

The movie is a fairly straightforward biopic of the creation, success, and decline of the group. Think Ray or Walk The Line focusing on an ensemble instead of a single star. There are the usual dramatic subplots of romantic difficulties and entanglements, internal disagreements between the members, and struggles to achieve early success.

What makes this movie different is the fact that the group included several Jewish members and the peak of their popularity coincided with the rise of Nazi Socialism in Germany. This creates dramatic conflicts far greater than you'll see on an episode of VH1's Behind The Music.

The film is primarily carried by its extensive use of actual recordings of the group's music. The old hissy recordings have been digitally cleaned and enhanced to provide remarkably clear audio quality. You are never taken out of the movie by a sudden change in audio dynamics as the group starts singing. It is a bravura feat of sound editing. Add to that the fact the music is still catchy and involving after all these years. It's the kind of thing where many modern viewers will be surprised and spurred to buy a CD of the group's work.

The look of the film is very pretty. 1920s/1930s Germany is reproduced with bright colors and vibrancy. Enough so that at times I felt it was a little too "sound stage." But the cars, the buildings, the costumes, the hairstyles, and the music halls are represented so lovingly that it simply feels fun to enter into that world.

Even when the Nazi party starts to emerge as a presence throughout the country (first in the background and later as an omnipresent symbol in all facets of life), the filmmakers keep up the vibrancy and aesthetic appeal of the mis-en-scene. There is no sudden symbolic darkening of the color palette or dark clouds to foreshadow and underscore the horrors that will follow.