The Jazz Singer (1927 film)

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The Jazz Singer
Directed by	Alan Crosland Gordon Hollingshead (2nd unit)
Produced by	Jack Warner (executive in charge of production)
Written by	Samson Raphaelson (play) Alfred A. Cohn (adaptation)
Starring	Al Jolson May McAvoy Warner Oland
Music by	Louis Silvers
Cinematography	Hal Mohr
Editing by	Harold McCord
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 6, 1927
Running time	89 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 U.S. musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, the movie stars Al Jolson, who performs six songs. Directed by Alan Crosland, it is based on the play Day of Atonement by Samson Raphaelson.

The story begins with young Jakie Rabinowitz defying the traditions of his devout Jewish family by singing popular tunes in a beer hall. Punished by his father, a cantor, Jakie runs away from home. Some years later, now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer. He attempts to build a career as an entertainer, but his professsional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage.

[edit] Background and production

The stage production of The Jazz Singer had been a hit on Broadway in its original 1925 production and in a 1927 revival with George Jessel in the lead role. When Warner Bros. refused to meet Jessel's salary demands, he turned down the part in the film. The studio next approached Eddie Cantor, who also rejected the role. The part was then offered to Al Jolson. As described by film historian Donald Crafton, "The entertainer, who sang jazzed-up minstrel numbers in blackface, was at the height of his phenomenal popularity. Anticipating the later stardom of crooners and rock stars, Jolson electrified audiences with the vitality and sex appeal of his songs and gestures, which owed much to African-American sources."^[1] Jolson took the role.

While many earlier sound films had dialogue, all were short subjects. D. W. Griffith's feature Dream Street (1921) was shown in New York with a singing sequence and crowd noises, and a prologue sequence with Griffith speaking directly to the audience, but the drama itself had no talking scenes. Most surviving prints of Dream Street are missing the Griffith prologue. Similarly, the first Warner Bros. Vitaphone feature, Don Juan (1926), like several that followed over the next year, had only a synchronized instrumental score and sound effects. The Jazz Singer contains those, as well as numerous synchronized singing sequences and some synchronized speech: Two popular tunes are performed by the young Jakie Rabinowitz, the future Jazz Singer; his father, a cantor, performs the devotional Kol Nidre; the famous cantor Jossele Rosenblatt, appearing as himself, sings another religious melody. As the adult Jack Robin, Jolson performs six songs, five popular "jazz" tunes and the Kol Nidre.

Jolson's first vocal performance, about fifteen minutes into the picture, is of "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face," with music by James V. Monaco and lyrics by Edgar Leslie and Grant Clarke. The first synchronized speech—uttered by Jack to a cabaret crowd and to the piano player in the band accompanying him—occurs directly after that performance, beginning at the 17:25 mark of the film. In a later scene, Jack talks with his mother in the family parlor; his father enters and pronounces one very conclusive word. In total, the movie contains barely two minutes worth of synchronized talking, most of it improvised. The rest of the dialogue is presented through the caption cards standard in silent movies of the era. Still, the songs and live-recorded dialogue sequences, fueled by Jolson's charisma, were enough to create a sensation among moviegoing audiences.

[edit] Reception and legacy

The success of the movie, which opened on October 6, 1927, demonstrated to Hollywood and the world the potential profit offered by the "talkies." New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall, reviewing the film's premiere, declared that

not since the first presentation of Vitaphone features, more than a year ago [i.e., Don Juan], has anything like the ovation been heard in a motion-picture theatre.... The Vitaphoned songs and some dialogue have been introduced most adroitly. This in itself is an ambitious move, for in the expression of song the Vitaphone vitalizes the production enormously. The dialogue is not so effective, for it does not always catch the nuances of speech or inflections of the voice so that one is not aware of the mechanical features.^[2]

The Jazz Singer's premiere

While the film was a major hit, Donald Crafton has shown that the reputation the film later acquired for being one of Hollywood's most enormous successes to date was inflated. The movie did well, but not astonishingly so, in the major cities where it was first released, garnering much of its impressive profits with long, steady runs in population centers large and small all around the country. On the other hand, Crafton's statement that The Jazz Singer "was in a distinct second or third tier of attractions compared to the most popular films of the day and even other Vitaphone talkies" errs in the other direction.^[3] In fact, the film was by far the biggest earner in Warner Bros. history, and would remain so until it was surpassed a year later by The Singing Fool, another Jolson feature. In the larger scope of Hollywood, among films originally released in 1927, available evidence suggests that The Jazz Singer was among the three biggest box office hits, trailing only Wings and, perhaps, The King of Kings.^[4]

The Jazz Singer opened wide the door to sound film. Though in retrospect, the movie signaled the end of the silent motion picture era, this was not immediately apparent. Mordaunt Hall, for example, praised Warner Bros. for "astutely realiz[ing] that a film conception of The Jazz Singer was one of the few subjects that would lend itself to the use of the Vitaphone."^[5] In July 1928, Warners released the first all-talking feature, Lights of New York, a musical crime melodrama. Within another year, Hollywood would be producing almost exclusively sound films. Jolson went on to make a series of movies for Warners, including The Singing Fool (1928), a part-talkie, and the all-talking features Say It with Songs (1929), Mammy (1930), and Big Boy (1930). A restored version of Mammy, which includes Jolson in some Technicolor sequences, was first screened in 2002.^[6] Jolson's first Technicolor appearance was in a cameo in the musical Show Girl in Hollywood (1930) from First National Pictures, a Warner Bros. subsidiary.

In 1996, The Jazz Singer was selected for preservation in the American National Film Registry of "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" motion pictures. In 1998, the film was chosen in voting conducted by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time, ranking at number ninety.^[7] Three subsequent screen versions of The Jazz Singer have been produced: a 1952 remake, starring Danny Thomas and Peggy Lee; a 1959 television remake, starring Jerry Lewis; and a 1980 remake starring Neil Diamond, Lucie Arnaz, and Laurence Olivier.

[edit] Plot summary (with complete recorded dialogue)

Poster for the film.

Cantor Rabinowitz (Warner Oland) wishes his son to continue in the five-generation family tradition and become a cantor at the synagogue in the Jewish ghetto of Manhattan's Lower East Side. But thirteen-year-old Jakie Rabinowitz (Bobby Gordon) has a taste for show business. Inside Muller's beer garden, young Jakie sings contemporary popular songs, establishing a conflict between his familial responsibilities and his deep love for worldly jazz music.

Moisha Yudelson (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, who is irate at the news. He heads to the beer garden, where he hauls the boy forcefully off the stage, dragging him home by the collar. Jakie clings on to his mother, Sara (Eugenie Besserer), as his father declares, "I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him!" Sarah tries to reason with him: "But Papa — our boy, he does not think like we do." Papa insists on teaching the child a lesson: "First he will get a whipping!"

Jakie's father removes his belt in preparation for the whipping, despite Sara's protests. Jakie threatens: "If you whip me again, I'll run away — and never come back!" Outside the bedroom door, Sara reacts in horror to the sounds of her beloved son's violent punishment. After the whipping concludes, Jakie kisses his mother goodbye and carries through on his word, running away from home. Despite the loss of his son, Cantor Rabinowitz prepares for the evening's service, even as Sara grieves: "Our boy has gone, and he is never coming back."

Jack Robin (Al Jolson) as he appears in his first scene

At the Yom Kippur service, Rabinowitz mournfully tells one of his fellow celebrants, "My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight — but now I have no son." As the sacred Kol Nidre is sung, Jakie sneaks back into his home and retrieves a picture of his loving mother.

Approximately ten years later, Jakie has changed his name to the more assimilated Jack Robin (Al Jolson). Jack is called up from his table at a cabaret to perform on stage: "Jack Robin will sing 'Dirty Hands, Dirty Face.' They say he's good — we shall see." Jack tells his tablemate, "Wish me luck, Pal — I'll certainly need it."

He belts out "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face," a song detailing the trials and more-than-compensatory joys of being parent to a young son. The crowd responds enthusiastically. Then Jack addresses them with the live-recorded, spoken words that made motion picture history:

Jack wows the crowd with his energized performance of the song, including that remarkable bird-whistle chorus. Afterward, Jack is introduced to the beautiful Mary Dale (May McAvoy), a musical theater dancer who has been admiring his performance. He tells her, "I caught your act in Salt Lake, Miss Dale — I think you're wonderful." She responds, "There are lots of jazz singers, but you have a tear in your voice." "I'm glad you think so — ," he replies. She offers to help him with his still-budding career.

Back at the family home Jack abandoned long ago, Cantor Rabinowitz instructs a young student in the traditional cantorial art. Jack's visibly aged mother receives a letter that Yudleson reads to her:

Dear Mama: I'm getting along great, making $250.00 a week. A wonderful girl, Mary Dale, got me my big chance. Write me c/o State Theatre in Chicago. Last time you forgot and addressed me Jakie Rabinowitz. Jack Robin is my name now. Your loving son, Jakie.

His mother wonders if he has become romantically involved with a gentile, another step away his religious roots: "Maybe he's fallen in love with a shiksa." Yudleson cautions her against jumping to conclusions: "Maybe not — you know Rosie Levy on the theayter is Rosemarie Lee." When Sara shows her husband the letter, he is furious: "I told you never to open his letters — we have no son!" Sara weeps.

Cantor Jossele Rosenblatt singing

As it happens, both Jack and Mary are in Chicago. With her help, he's gained a place on the vaudeville circuit and is now constantly traveling around the country: Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake, Denver, Omaha. For one glorious week, their paths have crossed and they're appearing on the same bill. Now, however, they must part for an indefinite period as Mary has won a lead role in a Broadway show.

While in Chicago, Jack attends a concert of sacred songs performed by renowned cantor Jossele Rosenblatt (playing himself). Jack is reminded poignantly of his own father. About to board a train for the next stop on the circuit, Jack is told that his booking has been terminated. Far from being canned however, he's won a shot at the big time: a spot in a Broadway revue, which will bring him close to both Mary and his treasured mother, whom he's not seen in ages.

It is Cantor Rabinowitz's sixtieth birthday. Presents arrive from relatives and friends, including a chicken of questionable vitality, a large jug of homemade wine, and three virtually identical gifts—prayer shawls. "Just what he needs," says Sara. It is also the day of Jack's return.

At the Rabinowitz home, Jack is greeted warmly by his mother after his long absence. He surprises her with an expensive gift, a necklace with a diamond-encrusted medallion. At his father's piano, he sings and plays Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" for her, one of the tunes he will try out in the Broadway show. Then, as Jack continues to tinkle on the piano with his left hand throughout, comes the first true dialogue sequence ever heard in a feature-length film (Sara's lines, for the most part, are not fully enunciated, and at times are difficult to understand amid her frequent giggling):

Having performed a relatively straightforward version of the song, Jack now demonstrates for his mother the energetic method with which he plans to perform it on Broadway. In the middle of the song, he interjects, referring to his flamboyant piano style,

In the middle of the song, Jack's father enters and watches Jack perform for a few moments. Stunned and still not fully comprehending, he shouts the last recorded line of speech in the movie:

Jack tries to explain his modern point of view, but the traditionalist cantor is appalled by his disrespectful son. Jack is banished once again: "Leave my house! I never want to see you again — you jazz singer!" Jack makes a prediction as he departs: "I came home with a heart full of love, but you don't want to understand. Some day you'll understand, the same as Mama does." Sara fears Jack will never return: "He came back once, Papa, but — he'll never come back again." The cantor slumps defeatedly.

Two weeks after Jack's expulsion from the family home and twenty-four hours before opening night of April Follies on Broadway, Jack's father becomes gravely ill. Jack is asked to choose between the show and duty to his family and faith: in order to sing the Kol Nidre at temple in his sick father's place for Yom Kippur the following night, he will have to miss the big premiere.

Mary (May McAvoy) and Jack, in his first blackface scene

Dress rehearsal is at one o'clock the next day. Jack is told, "Come full of pep!" That evening, the eve of Yom Kippur, Yudleson tells the Jewish elders, "For the first time, we have no Cantor on the Day of Atonement." Pale and emaciated lying in his bed, Cantor Rabinowitz tells Sara in his bedroom that he cannot perform on the most sacred of holy days: "My heart is breaking, Mama. I cannot sing. My son came to me in my dreams — he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully. If he would only sing like that tonight — surely he would be forgiven."

As Jack prepares for rehearsal by applying blackface makeup, he and Mary have a heated discussion about his career aspirations and the familial conflicts that they agree must not be allowed to interfere. Sara and Yudleson comes to Jack's dressing room to plea for him to come to his father and sing in his stead. Jack is torn. He delivers his blackface performance at the rehearsal, as Sara and Yudleson, along with Mary, watch from the wings. Sara, seeing her son onstage for the first time, has a tearful revelation: "Here he belongs. If God wanted him in His house, He would have kept him there. He's not my boy anymore — he belongs to the whole world now."

Jack returns to the Rabinowitz home after the rehearsal. He kneels at his father's bedside and the two converse fondly: "My son—I love you—." Yudleson assumes that he has come to replace Cantor Rabinowitz in the synagogue for Yom Kippur: "I knew you'd come. The choir is waiting." Sara encourages him as a way to heal his father: "Maybe if you sing — your Papa will get well —." But just then, the producer and Mary arrive to urge him to return with them to the April Follies premiere. Mary asks him, "You're not thinking of quitting us, are you, Jack?" The producer warns him of the consequences for his career if he fails to appear on opening night: "You'll queer yourself on Broadway — you'll never get another job."

Jack recognizes the import of the decision he must make: "It's a choice between giving up the biggest chance of my life — and breaking my mother's heart — I have no right to do either!" Mary reminds him of his former words: "Were you lying when you said your career came before everything?" Yudleson pressures him too: "You must sing tonight." Jack is unsure if he even can: "I haven't sung Kol Nidre since I was a little boy." Yudleson assures him, "What a little boy learns — he never forgets." The producer warns, "Don't be a fool, Jack!" Jack turns to his mother, who tells him, "Do what is in your heart, Jakie — if you sing and God is not in your voice — your father will know." The producer reminds Jack of his career: "You're a jazz singer at heart!"

Jack Robin on stage, in the movie's final scene

At the theater, the opening night audience is told, "Ladies and Gentlemen, there will be no performance this evening—." Jack sings the Kol Nidre in the synagogue in his father's place. His father listens from his deathbed to the nearby ceremony. Now that his son is reconciled to the old world's values and to the family, Cantor Rabinowitz's speaks his last, forgiving words: "Mama, we have our son again." The spirit of Jack's father is shown at his side in the synagogue. Mary has come to listen. She sees how Jack has reconciled the division in his soul: "a jazz singer — singing to his God."

"The season passes — and time heals — the show goes on." Jack, as "The Jazz Singer," is now appearing at the Winter Garden theater, apparently as the featured performer opening for a show called Back Room. In the film's final scene, his beloved mother sits alongside Yudleson in the front row of the packed theater. In blackface, Jack performs the song "My Mammy" for her and for the world.

[edit] Songs

• "My Gal Sal" (Sung by Robert Gordon)
• "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" (Sung by Robert Gordon)
• "Kol Nidre" (Sung by Joseph Diskay with Warner Oland on screen; Sung also by Al Jolson)
• "Dirty Hands, Dirty Faces" (Sung by Al Jolson)
• "Toot Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye" (Sung by Al Jolson)
• "Kaddish" (Sung by Cantor Joseff Rosenblatt)
• "Blue Skies" (Sung by Al Jolson)
• "Mother of Mine, I Still Have You" (Sung by Al Jolson)
• "My Mammy" (Sung by Al Jolson)

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] Award

• Special Academy Award to Warner Bros. production chief Darryl F. Zanuck "for producing The Jazz Singer, the pioneer outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry"

[edit] Nominations

• Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay — Alfred A. Cohn
• Academy Award for Engineering Effects — Nugent Slaughter

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Jazz Singer at the Internet Movie Database
• The Jazz Singer part of Filmsite.org
• Al Jolson Society Official Website includes clip from The Jazz Singer of Jolson's first onscreen speech and performance of "Toot, Toot, Tootsie" (follow links: His Work–Films–The Jazz Singer–Toot, Toot, Tootsie)
• Let's Go To The Movies (1948) film clip, with excerpt of "My Mammy" at 2:30; part of Archive.org