Film Review
The film that sounded the death knell for silent cinema and
revolutionised the movie making industry overnight is also the film
that saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy and made Al Jolson a
household name across the globe.
The Jazz Singer
was not the first film to incorporate sound elements but it was the
first feature-length film that employed synchronized dialogue sequences
which the public took to. After this, cinema would never be the
same again.
The synchronization of sound and image had been the greatest challenge
that faced filmmakers since the birth of cinema. In an article
published in Colliers' in 1924, the legendary filmmaker D.W. Griffith
stated that "it will never be possible to synchronize the voice with
the picture" and added "we never shall want the human voice in our films". Griffith
saw no future in sound cinema although he
predicted that colour photography in film would be perfected within a
few decades. Attempts to solve the synchronization problem had
achieved only partial success. In 1902, Léon Gauomont's
Chronophone (a device comprising a coupled phonograph and projector)
offered a possible solution, but this required actors to mime to their
dialogue, which was pre-recorded on wax cylinders or disks.
Despite such developments, it was not until
The Jazz Singer premiered on 6th
October 1927 that sound cinema caught the public imagination and
brought about an immediate and irreversible sea change. Within
three years, virtually nobody on the planet was making silent films.
The Jazz Singer was based on a
hit Broadway play of the same title, written by Samson
Raphaelson. The latter's inspiration for the story was the real
life experiences of Al Jolson, a young popular jazz singer of Russian
Jewish extraction who had risen to national stardom within a
decade. Jolson's gimmick was to black up as an African-American,
something that would today be considered the absolute height of
political incorrectness but which was, in Jolson's day, accepted as a
respectful homage to the African-American culture from which ragtime
and jazz sprang in the 1910s and early twenties. This was after
all the era of Scott Joplin and Josephine Baker.
Originally, Jolson was not considered for the role of Jakie Rabinowitz
in the film. George Jessel, the lead actor in the Broadway
production, was lined up for the part, but when he tried to renegotiate
his contract with Warner Brothers (after learning the film was to
include sound dialogue) he was thrown overboard and replaced by Jolson,
who was in any event the obvious choice for the role. By this
stage in his career, Jolson was at the height of his powers and it is
hardly a surprise that he had audiences enthralled when he threw
himself into his inimitable renditions of songs such as Dirty Hands,
Dirty Face, Blue Skies,
Toot, Toot, Tootsie and the immortal
My Mammy. Jolson's warmth and vitality as an entertainer still
radiate from the screen when you watch
The Jazz Singer today. This
was a man who lived and breathed his art like no other performer.
With a substantial budget of 400 thousand dollars and the use of an unproven
technology,
The Jazz Singer
was a tremendous gamble for Warner Brothers at a precarious time in the
company's history. But the gamble paid off handsomely and the
company netted 4.5 million dollars, instantly making it one of the big
players in Hollywood. The other studios were falling over
themselves to follow Warners' example and make an immediate switch from
silent to sound cinema - an event that is accurately portrayed in the
film
Singin' in the Rain (1952).
How appropriate that the first words of sound dialogue in The
Jazz Singer should be
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, " followed by Jolson's
catch phrase: "You ain't heard nothin' yet!" After this, no one
(other than die-hard reactionaries) wanted to watch a silent movie
again, and you can see why.
The story may be awash with mawkish sentimentality that must have been hard to stomach
even in the 1920s, but the experience of seeing and hearing words come out of an
actor's mouth for the first time was nothing short of a miracle for
most moviegoers. The era of sound cinema had begun.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In Manhattan, New York, Rabinowitz is the Cantor at the Russian Jewish
synagogue and is adamant that his young son Jakie will carry on the
tradition which goes back five generations. Jakie, however, has
other ideas and is more interested in singing ragtime numbers at the
local beer garden. When he hears of this, Rabinowitz is
outraged and drags his son home so that he can beat some sense into
him. For Jakie, this humiliation is the last straw. He
leaves home and vows never to return. Many years later, Jakie has
embarked on a promising career as a jazz singer. Through his
girlfriend Mary he lands the top spot in a Broadway revue and looks set
for stardom. But on the opening night Jakie is visited by his
mother, who comes with the news that his father has fallen ill and is
close to death. The old woman pleads with her son to take his
father's place as the Cantor at the holy Day of Atonement. Jakie
is faced with an impossible choice. He must either sacrifice his
one chance of professional success or break the heart of the mother he
loves...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.