Movies - The Jazz Singer

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	Movies - The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 U.S. movie musical notable for being the first feature-length motion picture with talking sequences. Released by Warner Bros., it was directed by Alan Crosland and starred Al Jolson, who sings five songs.

Overview

While many earlier sound films had dialogue, all were short subjects. D.W. Griffith's feature Dream Street (1920) was shown in New York with a singing sequence and crowd noises, but had no dialogue. Likewise, the first Warner Bros. Vitaphone feature, Don Juan (1926), had only synchronized music and sound effects.

The Jazz Singer contains only a few minutes' worth of dialogue, most of it improvised. The rest of the film's soundtrack is instrumental musical accompaniment and sound effects, with most of the dialogue presented through the standard caption cards prevalent in silent movies of the era. The songs and dialogue sequences were enough, however, to create a sensation among moviegoing audiences of the day. The movie opened on October 6, 1927 and was a sensational box-office hit, proving to Hollywood (and to the world) that "talkies" were profitable.

The stage production of the show had been a hit on Broadway in 1925, as well as a second production in 1927 with George Jessel in the lead role. When Warner Bros. refused to meet Jessel's salary demands, Jessel turned the part down and Warner Bros. chose Jolson for the role. Eddie Cantor was also offered the part but turned it down.

The film opened the door to the evolution of sound film and signaled the end of the era of the silent film. The movie was the first of a series of "talkies" starring Jolson; other films in the series included The Singing Fool (1928), Say It With Songs (1929), and Mammy (1930).

The movie is one of those selected for preservation by the American National Film Registry as culturally significant.

The Jazz Singer has been remade twice. A 1953 remake starred Danny Thomas and Peggy Lee, and a 1980 remake starred Neil Diamond, Lucie Arnaz and Laurence Olivier.

Plot summary

Jewish Cantor Rabinmowitz (Warner Oland) wishes his son to continue in the five-generation family tradition and become a cantor at the Orchard Street synagogue. 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.

Alex Trebeck (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 furious to find his son performing in the beer-garden 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.

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