The Jazz Singer (1927)

Warner Bros./Vitaphone, 1927. Directed by Alan Crosland. Starring Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, and Eugenie Besserer.

Usually hailed as the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer is actually a part-talkie, that is, a silent movie that features some spoken scenes and a few songs. Nevertheless, it's a landmark in film history and definitely deserves a place of honor along with the best musicals ever made. Not that its plot is very complex, though: it tells the story of Jakie Rabinowitz, the son of a Jewish cantor who wants to educate him to take over that role in the neighborhood synagogue when he grows into adulthood. But Jakie's heart doesn't lie in religious music, so he decides to become a jazz singer taking up the artistic name of Jack Robin, something of which his father strongly disapproves.

The story is based on Samson Raphaelson's play The Day of Atonement, but it bears a clear resemblance to the real life of the great Al Jolson, the movie's main star. However, it seems that Jolson wasn't the first choice to play the lead in this film; that honor was originally reserved for another fine vaudevillian, George Jessel, who rejected the part. We have no doubt, though, that Jolson was tailor-made for this role. Billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," he'd been one of the most popular artists in the country for over fifteen years by the time shooting began for this movie. And, of course, his appearance fills the screen, and his exciting singing style and his larger-than-life stage personality make the film a success. This is clearly a movie for Jolson and about Jolson, and so it would be even if the events in the plot didn't resemble his real life story. In fact, the songs featured here—perennials such as "My Mammy," "Blue Skies," and "Toot, Toot, Tootsie"—don't serve the purpose of driving the storyline forth, but they are simply vehicles to showcase Jolson's matchless artistry. In our opinion, Al Jolson is a superb vocalist that is unjustly overlooked nowadays, and unfortunately, his movies fail to capture the sheer excitement that audiences must have felt at his bombastic personal appearances.

If you enjoy The Jazz Singer as much as we do, you won't want to miss other fine Jolson movies such as The Singing Fool (1928) and Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933). In the mid-1940s, long after his retirement from stage and motion pictures, the biopic The Jolson Story (1946), featuring Larry Parks magnificently portraying Jolson, stirred a renewed interest in Jolson's music. This paved the way for a great comeback for Jolson, complete with re-recordings of his old hits and a good deal of radio work. We highly recommend that movie, along with its less interesting sequel Jolson Sings Again (1949), in the hope that new audiences will thereby discover and appreciate the magic of Jolson's art.

Anton&Erin.