Starring
Al Jolson, Warner Oland, Eugenie Besserer, May McAvoy, Otto Lederer,
Yosseie Rosenblatt. Directed by Alan Crosland. (1927/96 min).
ON
BLU-RAY FROM
Review
by Mr. Pawsđ¸
Contrary
to popular belief, The Jazz Singer was not the first “talkie.” People had been trying to marry images and sound ever since Edison
invented the moving picture, mostly with terrible results. While it’s
true that The Jazz Singer was the first feature-length talkie,
several short subjects were
previously produced that successfully incorporated sound.
Nor
is The Jazz Singer a talkie in the purest sense. Only the
musical numbers and a few Al Jolson improvisations have sound. A
majority of the film is still silent. The first 100% talkie was
1928’s Lights of New York, which by all accounts is
terrible, but the sheer novelty made it a huge hit.
Lest
anyone thinks I’m just flaunting my cinema smarts, I wasn’t aware
of any of these facts until reviewing this massive three-disc set,
which is just-as-much a history lesson as it is the restoration of a
landmark film. Hence, this is a must-own for any cinephile.
The
Jazz Singer was, of course, a game changer, more important to the
advancement of film technology than any subsequent innovation you’d
care to name. The film is beautifully restored on disc 1, the only
Blu-ray in the set. But it’s the two supplementary DVDs that make
this a keeper, especially the 90 minute documentary on disc 2, “The
Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk.” Dozens of historians,
authors, studio bigwigs and some heirs of early sound innovators are
interviewed, telling the complete story of the evolution of sound and
its impact on the film industry.
 |
| How to creep your mom out. |
While
The Jazz Singer itself remains more noteworthy for its
influence than its story, the film is still pretty entertaining.
Jolson was never what anyone would consider a great actor, but he had
loads of charisma and a hell of a singing voice, both of which are
prominently on display. There’s been some retro-condemnation of the
film in recent years – i.e. Jolson’s infamous blackface routine –
which is understandable. In this day and age, these scenes are indeed
cringe-worthy, but it was a different time. One needs to keep
in-mind the context of when this was made, when blackface was
not-only considered inoffensive, but worn at one time or another by a
wide variety of Hollywood heavyweights.
It
also bears mentioning that this set has been released before, back in 2013
as a Digibook, with the exact same bonus features. So there’s no
need for double-dipping here. But for anyone who has-yet to
experience The Jazz Singer, it is an indispensable piece of
movie history.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
Disc
1 (Blu-ray)
AUDIO
COMMENTARY – By historian Ron Hutchinson and bandleader Vince
Giordano.
THE
JAZZ SINGER LUX RADIO THEATER BROADCAST – From 1947, featuring
Al Jolson and May McAvoy.
JOLSON
RELATED SHORTS - “I Love to Singa” (Looney Tunes Cartoon); “A
Plantation Act”; “Hollywood Handicap: A Day at Santa Anita”;
“An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros’ Silver
Jubilee.”
Disc
2 (DVD): The Early Sound Era
“THE
DAWN OF SOUND: HOW MOVIES LEARNED TO TALK” - Feature-length
documentary about the game-changing development of sound and its
lasting impact on the movie industry. The Jazz Singer figures
large in this one, for obvious reasons. The best of the bonus
features and as entertaining as the movie itself.
STUDIO
SHORTS - “The Voice from the Screen”; “Finding His Voice”
(MGM cartoon); “The Voice that Thrilled the World”; “Okay for
Sound” (20 years after The Jazz Singer, Warner Bros
celebrates itself); “When the Talkies Were Young” (features
excerpts of James Cagney & Spencer Tracy early in their careers).
GOLD
DIGGERS OF BROADWAY (EXCERPTS) – Two surviving scenes from one
of many lost films.
Disc
3 (DVD): Vitaphone Shorts
The
Vitaphone process essentially made talkies a reality. This disc
contains 2 dozen shorts ranging from 5-10 minutes each, roughly
spanning the first decade of talkies. Some are more interesting than
others and time has diminished the video/audio quality of many of
them.
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS.
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