User Reviews

This is it, folks. This is when the movies learned to talk. Though often dismissed nowadays as a technical innovation without any significant artistic merit, I was pleased to find that Alan Crosland's 'The Jazz Singer (1927)' employed the newfangled technology of synchronised soundtracks as a storytelling device rather than a gimmick. There's a wonderful scene early in the film when young Jakie Rabinowitz (Bobby Gordon, later Al Jolson) briefly returns home while his father, a Jewish cantor, sings in the nearby synagogue. The father's somber, passionate voice is heard by Jakie as he prepares to abandon his family, and the new technology enables Crosland to easily communicate the boy's (dwindling) proximity to his estranged father, using only the film's soundtrack. It's a simple but effective technique that allows extra detail to be imparted without crowding the viewer with visual information.

Of course, though touted as cinema's first feature-length "talkie," most of 'The Jazz Singer' unfolds as a typical silent film, with intertitles intact. Yet the director knew when the addition of sound would prove most effective. Apart from the excellent musical numbers, which show Jolson – perhaps the most popular entertainer of his time – at his musical peak, Crosland also shoots a single dialogue scene with a soundtrack, as an enthusiastic Jakie (now known as Jack Robin) teases his adoring mother with some rag-time hits (including Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies"). Appropriately, the soundtrack ceases from the moment Jack's father (Warner Oland) enters the room. The elderly cantor, firmly set in his traditional ways, is analogous to the old silent film technology, whereas Jolson's lively stage performer is the mouthpiece for an art form that is moving forward, evolving for the better.

Today, the use of blackface is generally frowned upon as racist, or simply unnecessary. Al Jolson himself frequently employed the costume in his stage performances, and its usage in 'The Jazz Singer' is actually quite important. Made up as an African American before a dress rehearsal, Jack Robin peers into a mirror and glimpses the fading vestiges of his Jewish cultural roots, now almost entirely hidden by the uniform of his trade. This clever sequence highlights how far Jack has strayed from family origins, and he is ultimately persuaded to embrace both his past and future values. Two of Jolson's songs – ""Mother of Mine, I Still Have You" and "My Mammy" – directly address the importance of family – in both cases, via his loving and accepting mother (Eugenie Besserer). Interestingly, Jack's romance with beautiful dancer Mary (May McAvoy) is uncharacteristically underplayed; Jack even admits to her that she runs second to the progress of his career!

Once you strip away this movie's historical significance and musical numbers, you are left with some pretty heavy melodrama. Forced to choose between a long Jewish tradition from the old country and the individualism and freedom of America, Jakie chooses the latter, and is disowned by his father, a cantor from a long line of cantors who wants his son to be a cantor. This goes on through the whole movie and it wears you out. But then, on the opening night of his first big break in the theater, Jakie finds out his father is dying, and there is no one to sing in the temple on the Day of Atonement. He agonizes and agonizes over the choice he must make between family and career. But what was he worried about? Didn't he know this was a Hollywood movie where people get to have it both ways? He chooses to sing for his father, and then goes on to sing in the theater too, becoming a great success.

But for it's reputation as cinema's first talking film, I didn't find "The Jazz Singer" to be particularly appealing, be it story wise or in entertainment value. Going only by it's reputation for my first viewing, I was puzzled by the actual lack of speech at the start of the picture, along with the generous use of dialog cards complementing a good number of the scenes. The rare times Jolson's (or anyone's) voice is heard is in connection with the song offerings throughout the picture, with very limited use elsewhere. In all, the film breaks out to about eighty/twenty in terms of it's silent to talk ratio, but it was enough to capture the public's imagination creating a clamorous desire for more talkies. Interestingly, Jolson's very next picture, "The Singing Fool" a year later was about sixty/forty, and was so successfully received that it remained the movie box office champion until 1939's "Gone With the Wind". Now there's a statistic that bears noting.

My summary line belongs to Jack Robin's (Jolson) mother (Eugenie Besserer) as she agonizes over her son's choice of profession. I found it particularly fitting to describe Jolson's own career, already booming at the time the movie came out. With his appearance in the film, he became an even greater sensation. However in one of those odd consequences due to the passage of time and tastes, the 'World's Greatest Entertainer' for over forty years is relatively unknown today except to cinema fans who point to this film as one of his crowning achievements.

But as I remarked earlier, the story in "The Jazz Singer" is not particularly compelling, and approaches a rather odd creakiness in the present day. Some of the acting is confined to over-emoting, not unusual for early talkies, and the players come across somewhat as caricatures. The most natural seemed to be May McAvoy as Jack Robin's girlfriend, an unusually resilient character who took it in stride when Jack admitted that his career came even before her. In fact, she even applauded him for it, which to my mind made her one in a million.

In New York, the thirteen year-old Jewish Jakie is the son of the cantor Rabinowitz (Warner Oland). When Rabinowitz is informed by Moisha Yudelson (Otto Lederer) that Jakie is singing ragtime in a club, he beats his son. The traditional cantor expects that Jakie sings in the synagogue like his previous generations did, but the boy dreams on becoming a jazz singer. Jakie leaves home pursuing his dreams. Years later, Jakie (Al Jolson) is in London where his artistic name is Jack Robin. When he meets the famous stage performer Mary Dale (May McAvoy), she helps him in his career. Sooner he travels to New York for the greatest chance of his life in an important show on Broadway and he visits his parents. However, his father expels him from home. On the opening day, the manipulative Moisha Yudelson invites him to sing in the Atonement Day since his father is very ill, but the emotional blackmail of the Jewish leader does not work. When Jakie is ready to the rehearsal, Moisha brings Jakie's beloved mother to press him to sing in the synagogue. Now Jakie shall choose between his career and Mary Dale and the bonds with his family and religion.

"The Jazz Singer" is the first "post-silent movie" of cinema history, meaning the first film with sound. I was curious to see this film and now I am very disappointed with the corny plot that uses a selfish emotional blackmail of the leader of the Jewish congregation and the mother of the lead character to force Jakie to forget his dreams and his love for a lovely woman. The story is totally absurd, considering that Jakie left home years ago pursuing his dream and is in love with Mary Dale. The forty-one year-old Al Jolson is totally miscast in the role of a young man and May McAvoy has a lovely face. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Cantor de Jazz" ("The Jazz Singer")

Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing' yet! Adapted for the screen by screenwriter Alfred A. Cohn, and based on Samson Raphaelson's 1921 short story "The Day of Atonement" which also popular the 1926 Broadway play of the same name. The film tells the fictional story of a young Jewish man, Jakie Rabinowitz (Al Jolson), who defies the traditions of his devout family, in order to become a famous jazz singer, under the name, Jackie Robin. Without spoiling the movie, too much, Warner Bros.' and director Alan Crosland's 1927's 'The Jazz Singer' was a mixed bag for me. While, I do champion it, for being one of the pioneers of motion pictures with synchronized sound & dialogue, it's still far from being the great use of it. What confuses me about this film, is odd use of dialogue title cards. I don't get, why they kept most of the dialogue silent, if they did had the ability to put sound effects, music, and singing. It made the film, a little bit jarring. I know, the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system might have been expensive to use, but I felt the film should had either, go all the way, with the sound or none at all. Seeing the film, go halfway, felt a bit lazy. In total, the movie contains barely two minutes, worth of synchronized talking, much or all of it improvised. It's not a 'talkie', as much as film historian, think it is. Another complain, I have against this film is the idea that this, was the first 'talkie'. In truth, the development of commercial sound cinema have start, way before 'The Jazz Singer', became an idea for a film. The first synchronized sound probably started with a film made by William K.L. Dickson at the Thomas A. Edison laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey in the fall of 1894, however the phonograph cylinder have long been badly damaged that's it's nearly unplayable to modern viewers to prove the claim. Nevertheless, later films like 1905's Phonoscène short film about vaudeville artist, Polin by female pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché proves that synchronized singing has been, done, way before, this film, came out. So, why is this movie considered as the first talkie then? It's actually quite simple, Warner Bros was the first studio that took the talking movie seriously and also managed to commercialize it with great success. However, the film's success did not change things overnight; it took a few more years, until Hollywood was fully onboard with film with sound. Anyways, there is other things to praise about this film. It's one of the first movies to feature, a Jewish character outside of biblical films. It's very rare to see, a movie focus so much on the conflict of doing cultural assimilation versus keeping cultural diversity. The typical story of a man seeking his place, attempting to find his voice in the world and the struggles he faced, was pretty smart and compelling to see. No wonder, why the Warner Bros, like it. But the film suffers from the same problem that many films from this era, has, with portraying ethic characters in the modern era. It went a little too racism. The older Jews looks a little too straight out of 'Merchant of Venice' central casting for my taste. However, the most offensive thing in the film, is seeing Jackie Robin portraying in blackface on the Broadway stage. That's a little hard to watch for the modern viewer. Yes, I know, it was a common practice at the time, and help single-handedly introduce African-American culture to white audiences. Nevertheless, it's still troublesome, as most of the practice does portray black people as buffoons. Regardless, I tend to be more forgiving in this film's version of blackface, because it does seem like Al Jolson and his character had good reasons to donning the paint. I believe, the film was trying to portray the troubles, most African-Americans and Jewish people were going through, in America through a metaphor of mutual suffering. After all, some of the songs that Al sing, during the film was about life in the poverty line and helping break down racial attitudes. If anything, the performance in blackface feels more like satire, mockery of white society portrayal of Negro culture than on African American, themselves. Pretty much, like the way, people portray author Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. It raise eyebrows. Regardless, it's still uncomfortable to watch, even if Al Jolson in real-life, was known for fighting against discrimination. With that say, I would rather have a black Jewish actor portray Jack, than Al Jolson. I really don't think Jolson is a great actor or singer. He comes across, very corny and amateurism. The music that comes with 'the Jazz Singer', also fall to impress me. It doesn't even sound like Jazz. Where was all the scat singing!? I was really hoping for something, more entertaining, like a tune from Duke Ellington, Louie Armstrong, or Adelaide Hall. None of the songs were really that memorable. Some of the music, they chose, doesn't even fit the tone of the film like composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's orchestic work 'Romeo and Juliet'. That was just odd! Overall: I can't say, this movie was the most entertaining film about achieving a singing career. But, at least, I can say, it's better than the 1952, 1959 & 1980's remakes of the same name. In the end, it does deserve to be preservation in the National Film Registry of "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" motion pictures. However, it shouldn't be, nowhere near the top of IMDb 250 films of all-time.

Assistant director: Gordon Hollingshead. Sound recording: George R. Groves. Vitaphone Sound System. Sound technician: William A. Mueller. Sound supervisor: Nathan Levinson.

Copyright 6 October 1927 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Warners' Theatre, 6 October 1927. U.S. release: 4 February 1928. 9 reels. 8,117 feet. 90 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Young man wants to be a jazz singer, but dad wants him to follow in his footsteps as cantor in the local synagogue.

NOTES: Special Academy Award, Warner Bros.: "for producing The Jazz Singer, the pioneer outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry." Also nominated for Writing Adaptation (Seventh Heaven) and Special Engineering Effects (Wings).

Domestic rental gross: $3½ million. Re-made as The Jolson Story (1946), The Jazz Singer (1953), The Jazz Singer (1980).

Although this was the first feature film in which spoken dialogue was heard from the screen, that dialogue was limited. The Jazz Singer is primarily a silent movie with a synchronized music score, plus songs.

The original Broadway play opened at the Fulton on 14 September 1925 and ran a highly successful 315 performances. Albert Lewis directed Howard Lane, Sam Jaffe and star, George Jessel, who was contracted to do the movie but balked when the studio decided to add sound to four songs. He demanded more money. The studio refused and Jolson was engaged instead.

COMMENT: The story set the pattern for talkies — sentimental, synthetic, a bit of manufactured drama carelessly tossed away to cater for box office demand — and nowhere is this more evident than at the conclusion where a title card glibly explains that time heals all wounds and allows Jolson to go into his concluding number Mammy.

Jolson's last two numbers in blackface are infinitely more acceptable than his others owing to his exaggerated mannerisms which even by silent standards (and in contrast to most of the other players — Besserer and Lederer even are not this bad) are exceedingly hammy.

Jolson and Besserer are the only players that have any dialogue and then only in one stretch. Jolson has a few other lines between numbers and Oland has one word, "Stop!" The other players are completely speechless, though Cantor Josef Rosenblatt has a song and young Bobbie Gordon has a couple of numbers (though we suspect his are dubbed). There is very little use of sound effects — applause only — even obvious effects like knocking on doors being underscored only by music — and that too is kitsch.

Still, May McAvoy makes a charming heroine, Myrna Loy is effective in a bit as a sneaky-eyed gossiping chorus girl. And even without his voice Roscoe Karns' personality comes across in his single scene at the railroad station. Demarest has a tiny part as a ravenous diner.

The film is rather slow and the direction (aside from a rapid tracking shot through the street on Jolson's return home) is undistinguished — although I like the way he solves the problem of keeping the story going at the climax during the songs, by intercutting them with sub-titles!

I've read several comments here that say "The Jazz Singer" seems biographical about Jolson but that's probably coincidence. No, it's not. Samson Raphelson, who wrote "The Day of Atonement", the short story that "The Jazz Singer" is based on, was inspired to write it by seeing Al Jolson perform on stage in Chicago in the early 1920s. The story is contained in a collection called "No, But I Saw The Movie" edited by David Wheeler ISBN 0140110909.

I get totally into the movie each time I see it and I've seen it dozens of times, sometimes re-winding it and watching it again in the same sitting. I first watched it 40 plus years ago when it shown on the afternoon slot of a local Los Angeles TV station along with commercials. KTTV didn't give it special treatment.

It is kind of fun to look for familiar faces. Roscoe Karns (he played "Believe you me" Shapely in "It Happened One Night") comes to the train station to tell Jakie about his big break and gives him his train tickets.

Jolson was a Broadway star and, from what I've read, had people eating out of his hand. He'd sing encore after encore and audiences would lap it up. Plus he took the time to make a lot of records when most stage stars left that to singers who worked for the recording studios. His recordings (even the acoustic era--pre 1925) are terrific. So people were familiar with him even in the boonies. "The Jazz Singer" came with a ready-made audience, not just to hear sound on film--there had been experimental short films that did that, in addition to the sound track of John Barrymore's "Don Juan"--but to hear JOLSON! I really don't think the film would have been the success it was with anyone else. I couldn't imagine anyone else playing the title role (and that includes remakes). I try to picture George Jessel in the part, even though he played it on Broadway, and I can't.

I adore Yudelson the kibitzer. When the men are gathered trying figure who should sing Kol Nidre since the cantor is unable, is a hoot, each, including Yudelson, thinking *he* should be the one to sing, implying the others couldn't carry a tune in a hand-basket. The scene where each person brings an identical prayer shawl for Papa's birthday is funny, too. Even Jakie, though his is different looking, brings one. Mama, who receives the gifts for Papa, looks as if she could be saying "Oy vey!" I like the change the movie made over the short story. He comes to his Papa before the old man's death. They're estranged but are reconciled before it's too late. In the short story he's summoned after his father's death.