Background
Warner
Bros.' and director Alan Crosland's
The Jazz Singer
(1927)
is an historic milestone film and cinematic landmark. [Note: Most
people associate this film with the advent of sound pictures, although
Don
Juan (1926)
, a John Barrymore silent film, also had a synchronized
musical score performed by the New York Philharmonic and sound effects
using
Vitaphone
's system.] It should be made clear that this
film was
not
the first sound film, nor the first 'talkie'
film or the first movie musical.
The wildly successful "photo-dramatic production" was
based upon Samson Raphaelson's 1921 short story "The Day of
Atonement"
(also the basis for Raphaelson's popular 1926 Broadway play of the
same name), and adapted for the screen by Alfred A. Cohn.
In 1926, Warners' risky investment of a half million
dollars with Western Electric in the Vitaphone sound system brought
profits of $3.5 million at the box-office with this landmark talkie.
It was a huge success, responsible for transforming Warners into
Hollywood's hottest film factory. The commercialization of sound-on-film,
and the transformation of the industry from silent films to talkies
became a reality with the success of this film.
Although it was
not
the first
Vitaphone
(sound-on-disk)
feature, it was the
first
feature-length Hollywood "talkie" film
in which spoken dialogue was used as part of the dramatic action.
It is, however, only part-talkie (25%) with sound-synchronized, vocal
musical numbers and accompaniment. [Note: The first "all-talking" (or
all-dialogue) feature-length picture was Warners' experimental entry
- the gangster film
Lights of New York (1928)
.] There are
only a few scenes, besides the songs, where dialogue is spoken synchronously.
A musical score (composed of a potpourri of melodies including sources
such as Tchaikovsky, traditional Hebrew music and popular ballads)
and musical sound effects accompany the action and title/subtitle
cards throughout the entire film. The characters are given individual
musical themes.
Sam Warner, co-founder of the studio, died at the premature
age of 40 - one day before the film's New York City world premiere
on October 6, 1927. Jolson was given the lead after Eddie Cantor
and George Jessel denied Warners' offer to play the title role. Audiences
were wildly enthusiastic when America's favorite jazz singer and
superstar Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson in 1886, not the first choice
for the role, and played onstage by George Jessel) broke into song,
ad-libbed extemporaneously with his mother at the piano, and proclaimed
the famous line to introduce a musical number:
Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin'
yet!
[Note: Jolson was actually promoting the title of one
of his songs,
You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet
(written by Gus
Kahn and Buddy de Sylva), that he had recorded in 1919.] In fact,
Jolson's next part-talkie follow-up film, Warners' and director Lloyd
Bacon's
The
Singing Fool (1928)
, was an even greater hit and a superior film.
This next film contained the first hit song from a talking movie,
Jolson's
Sonny Boy
. A Jolson biopic from director Alfred E.
Green was titled
The Jolson Story (1946)
, starring Oscar-nominated
Larry Parks as the wildly-popular entertainer (rather than Jolson,
who also auditioned to play himself). Star Parks received the nomination,
although Jolson did the actual singing for the part. And then there
was a sequel,
Jolson Sings Again (1949)
.
Although the film was ruled ineligible in the Best
Picture category (it was thought unfair for a sound film to compete
with silents), Warner Bros.' production head Darryl F. Zanuck was
presented with a special Oscar at the very first Academy Awards ceremony
in May of 1929, "for producing
The Jazz Singer
, the pioneer
outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry." The
film had two nominations in two other categories: Best Writing Adaptation
(Alfred Cohn), and Best Engineering Effects (Nugent Slaughter), but
didn't win.
The film was remade twice: Warners' and director Michael
Curtiz'
The Jazz Singer (1952)
with Danny Thomas (as Jerry
Golding) and Peggy Lee (as Judy Lane), and director Richard Fleischer's
The
Jazz Singer (1980)
with singer-songwriter Neil Diamond in the
lead role as the cantor's son with legendary co-star Laurence Olivier
as his father.
Plot Synopsis
The opening title card: "In every living soul,
a spirit cries for expression - - perhaps this plaintive, wailing
song of Jazz is, after all, the misunderstood utterance of a prayer." The
opening scene is described by another title card:
The New York Ghetto, throbbing to that rhythm of
music which is older than civilization.
Immigrant life in the lower East Side of the New York
Ghetto is seen on location around Hester and Orchard Streets. Bearded
Jewish Cantor Rabinowitz (Warner Oland) wishes his son to continue
in the five-generation family tradition and become a cantor (a leader
of chants and songs during Jewish religious services) at the Orchard
Street synagogue: "Cantor Rabinowitz, chanter of hymns in the
synagogue, stubbornly held to the ancient traditions of his race." But
he cannot locate his young son: "Tonight Jakie is to sing Kol
Nidre. He should be here!" His mother, Sara Rabinowitz (Eugenie
Besserer):
"God made her a Woman and Love made her a Mother," is more
sympathetic: "Maybe our boy doesn't want to be a Cantor, Papa
- " Cantor Rabinowitz can't believe that his boy would turn his
back on family traditions: "What has
he
to say? For five
generations a Rabinowitz has been a Cantor - - he
must
be one!"
Young Jakie Rabinowitz (Bobby Gordon as a 13 year old
boy) has forsaken the ways of his fathers to try out show business.
This results in conflict between devotion to his family and his deep
love for worldly jazz music. Inside Muller's bar-cafe, young Jakie
prefers singing popular songs of the day, and is introduced by the
piano player: "Ragtime Jakie is with us - give him a break."
In
the first actual synchronized sound heard in the film (
not by
Al Jolson!
, but by young Bobby Gordon), Jakie entertains the
cafe audience by singing 'My Gal Sal.' From the beer-garden area
of Muller's, "Moisha Yudleson (Otto Lederer), rigidly orthodox
and a power in the affairs of the Ghetto" spots the young Jewish
boy singing, and runs to tell Jakie's father. In the Rabinowitz home,
Sara is told by her husband: "I have taught him all the hymns
and prayers - - he knows them as well as I do." Sara understands
where the boy's heart lies: "Yes Papa - he knows all the songs
- he has them in his head - - but not in his heart." Jakie's
father points to his watch: "He will start the fasting of Yom
Kippur without supper."
Yudleson brings the news: "In a saloon, who do
you think I saw singing raggy time songs? - your son Jakie!" His
father is furious to find his son in the beer-garden performing 'Waiting
for the Robert E. Lee,' rather than in the synagogue. He snatches
the squirming boy from the stage to drag him home by the scruff of
the neck. Jakie hugs and embraces his mother for protection from
his threatening father: "I'll teach him better than to debase
the voice God gave him!" Sarah tries to reason: "But Papa
- our boy, he does not think like we do." Papa wishes to teach
the boy a lesson: "First he will get a whipping!"
Jakie's stern father prepares for the whipping by removing
his belt, despite protestations from Sara. Jakie threatens: "If
you whip me again, I'll run away - - and
never come back
!" Outside
the door, Sara reacts horribly to the sounds of her beloved boy being
brutally whipped in the bedroom. With one last embrace and kiss from
his mother, Jakie carries through on his threat, rebelling against
his father's wishes and running away from home. Even though he has
lost his son, Cantor Rabinowitz prepares for the evening's service: "It
is time to prepare for the services, Mama." Mama is distraught: "Our
boy has gone, and he is never coming back."
At the synagogue on Yom Kippur, Rabinowitz tells another
Jewish cantor: "My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight
- but now I have no son." The Kol Nidre is sung in the synagogue,
during which time Jakie sneaks back into his home and retrieves a
picture of his loving mother.
The scene shifts to "Years later - - and three
thousand miles from home" to a popular San Francisco nightspot
and showcase for amateur performers called Coffee Dan's. Approximately
ten years later, Jakie has changed his name to Jack Robin (Al Jolson),
an anglicized name that represents a rejection of his Jewish faith:
Jakie Rabinowitz had become Jack Robin - - the Cantor's
son, a
jazz singer
. But fame was still an uncaptured bubble
- - ... Al Jolson.
Jack is invited to perform in the nightclub and is
introduced to the crowd: "Jack Robin will sing 'Dirty Hands,
Dirty Face.' They say he's good - we shall see." Jack tells
his table companion: "Wish me luck, Pal - I'll certainly need
it."
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