The Jazz Singer

 

Warner Brothers created a film landmark with The Jazz Singer. Released in 1927, the film marked the first “talkie” picture. (Only, contrary to public belief, The Jazz Singer wasn’t really the first. And films did not all turn into talkie after the release of The Jazz Singer.)

 

The film is a classic, though. You’ve likely seen or heard a reference to The Jazz Singer in other media. For example, I knew Al Jolson’s line “You ain’t nothing yet” because it was referenced by Jamie Sheridan while he was playing Randall Flagg in The Stand miniseries. The film is so popular that in the 1970’s, Neil Diamond even starred in a remake of The Jazz Singer.

 

As to its actual merits as a film, The Jazz Singer is melodramatic at best. At worst, it’s a pretty racist portrayal of how various ethnicities were viewed in the United States during the early 1900’s. In addition to featuring a performance in blackface, the film also tackles concept of orthodox Judaism.

 

The story revolves around the son (Al Jolson) of a Jewish cantor. The son performs on vaudeville, which greatly strains the relationship that he has with his father.

 

May McAvoy plays Jolson’s love interest. She might be the most engaging actor in the film. After The Jazz Singer was released, though, McAvoy mostly disappeared from the stage until her death in the 1980’s. While rumors got started that McAvoy did not have a voice for “talkies”, in reality she had gotten married to a film studio treasurer who wanted her to give up acting.

 

Despite the film’s outdated social views and considering most of the film’s dialogue is written on black title cards in between scenes, The Jazz Singer surprisingly holds your attention for its hour and a half length. There’s a lovely scene where Jolson sings “Blue Skies”. His voice strains and he overperforms, but it’s a stirring little segment of film nonetheless.

 

Complete Crap
Few Redeeming Qualities
Mediocre
X – Good
Pretty Darn Good
Incredible

 

What I Learned: This is an old film adage by now, but Al Jolson’s character was pretty hammy, but I still liked him as a character. Why? Because The Jazz Singer sets you up to root for him. We really just need somebody we can root for in a film. It doesn’t matter if we’d otherwise hate the character.