There’s a small part in Moscow on the Hudson for small actor Emil Feist. His unnamed character is first seen being berated by the bosses of the Moscow Circus where he works as a clown, threatened with being left behind when the troupe goes on tour to New York if he doesn’t behave. He promises to “behave”; exactly how he has been misbehaving is not mentioned, so one wonders if he’s being treated like a child. The other characters are busy misbehaving in ways that cause the political officers to spy on them and threaten to institutionalize their older relatives in mental hospitals if they don’t toe the Party line. Feist’s character avoids such encounters with the KGB and gets to witness the defection in Bloomingdale’s, watching wistfully from the bus window.
