 Tagline: MAMMY! (original print ad - all caps) First Line: [first words in the first widely-seen talking picture] Jack Robin: Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain't heard nothin'! You wanna hear "Toot, ... When The Jazz Singer was released in theaters, the future of Hollywood changed. For the first time in a feature film, an actor spoke on screen, stunning audiences and leaving the silent era behind. Al Jolson was the history-making actor, playing the son of a Jewish cantor who must defy his rabbi father in order to pursue his dream of being in show business. Now remastered and restored for hi-def and presented with a massive Blu-ray book, the whole story can be seen (and heard) here. It's more than just history - it's pure entertainment! Storyline: Cantor Rabinowitz is concerned and upset because his son Jakie shows so little interest in carrying on the family's traditions and heritage. For five generations, men in the family have been Cantors in the synagogue, but Jakie is more interested in jazz and ragtime music. One day, they have such a bitter argument that Jakie leaves home for good. After a few years on his own, now calling himself Jack Robin, he gets an important opportunity through the help of well-known stage performer Mary Dale. But Jakie finds that in order to balance his career, his relationship with Mary, and his memories of his family, he will be forced to make some difficult choices. Written by Snow Leopard Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Michael Reuben on January 24, 2013 -- It's understandable that Warner Bros. should lavish such care and attention on its deluxe package of The Jazz Singer, because the film changed the course of the studio's future. As detailed in the extras included with this set, when the four original Warner brothers embarked on the production of their first feature-length film utilizing the Western Electric "Vitaphone" sound recording system, they were taking a gamble. Most movie theaters were not equipped for sound, and previous attempts to win over audiences with talking pictures had failed. No one seemed eager to rock the boat of a production and distribution model that was predictably generating a solid return on investment. All that changed after The Jazz Singer premiered in New York City on October 6, 1927. The combination of Al Jolson's star power and the Vitaphone system's unprecedented clarity in reproducing both voices and instruments almost immediately changed everyone's perception of what movies could be. After a brief period of resistance, other studios found themselves in the unenviable position of having to license Vitaphone from Warner in order to compete. Warner, which had previously been considered a minor player in the motion picture industry, suddenly advanced to the first rank, where it has remained ever since. Seventy years later, it would be Warner who, along with Sony, helped pioneer DVD. Eighty years later, it would be Warner who ended the so-called "format war" by embracing Blu-ray as its sole high-definition format. For the original Warner brothers, though, their 1927 triumph was bittersweet. Sam Warner, who had been the primary champion of both Vitaphone and The Jazz Singer, and who had worked tirelessly to get the film completed, did not survive to see the success of his efforts. Only forty years old, he died the day before the film's premiere of complications from a mastoid infection. While The Jazz Singer opened to cheering crowds in New York, the surviving three Warner brothers were traveling to Los Angeles for a funeral. Jolson, who must have understood how much Sam Warner had done for his career, sent Jack Warner a telegram reading: "When you lost one brother you found another your loving brother, Al Jolson." The story of The Jazz Singer is the stuff of show business cliché. Even in its time, where it had been successful as a Broadway play, it was considered hokey. But clichés only becomes clichés because they're true, and the original author of The Jazz Singer, Samuel Raphaelson, based his play on Jolson's real life. Even today, the notion of pursuing an artistic dream that is rejected by those closest to you still casts a powerful spell. In what was then the Jewish ghetto of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the elder Rabinowitz (Warner Oland, best known for his future role as Charlie Chan) is the cantor to the local synagogue, and he expects his son to carry on the family tradition of five generations. (In Jewish services, a cantor is an important figure, who leads the entire congregation in prayer, whereas in Christian churches, he simply leads the choir.) But Jakie (played by Robert Gordon at age 13) would rather hang out in the local saloon and sing and dance to ragtime. When Jakie is spotted by a local luminary named Yudelson (Otto Lederer), his scandalized father punishes him, and Jakie runs away, breaking the heart of his gentle mother, Sara (Eugenie Besserer). Cantor Rabinowitz is unmoved, declaring that he has no son. Years pass, and Jakie Rabinowitz has become "Jack Robin" (now played by Jolson), a fixture on the vaudeville circuit, where his golden voice and easy manner with the crowd have made him popular. He has a crush on dancing star Mary Dale (May McAvoy), who is instrumental in getting him hired for a big Broadway show. Jack returns to New York and his mother's loving arms a success, but his father is unrepentant. Then, as if by the hand of fate, Cantor Rabinowitz becomes so ill that he cannot perform his duties on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The temple elders ask Jack to take his father's place, but it's the same night that his show opens. Jack has to make a difficult choice, but it's one that leads to healing and, somewhat too conveniently, his career is unaffected. The film concludes with Jack Robin headlining at the Winter Garden Theater, where he sings "My Mammy" in blackface to an adoring crowd that includes his mother. (The significance of blackface in The Jazz Singer and in entertainment of the period has been hotly debated.) The Jazz Singer doesn't work as a bio-pic, either of Jolson or of "Jakie", but I doubt that it was ever intended to, even though it was based on Jolson's life story. There's no real sense of progression, growth or struggle between Jakie and "Jack", even when he has to choose between his career and his religious tradition. From the moment we meet the adult version of Jakie, he's instantly recognizable as Al Jolson, the seasoned entertainer, as if he'd sprung fully formed from some vaudeville producer's head. The results might have been different, if George Jessel, who played the part on Broadway, had remained in the role as originally cast. But Jessel was replaced over salary disputes, and with Jolson in the lead, someone must have realized—whether it was Sam Warner or the director, Alan Crosland—that the true appeal of the film was a chance to see the great Al Jolson performing signature tunes and delivering his trademark patter, all while sounding like he was right there in the movie theater, courtesy of Vitaphone. Forget about character development. The sound was the thing. Today, of course, sound has long since ceased to be a novelty, but The Jazz Singer still allows us to experience the unique qualities that made Jolson a star in his day, even if tastes have changed radically since then. The warmth, the honeyed tones, the sense of engagement with the audience, all of these were qualities much admired and imitated by later stars such as Frank Sinatra. Ironically, although Jolson was said to need a live audience to perform at his peak, he became the trailblazer for every performer since who has had to learn how to translate the excitement of live performance to a recorded medium. In that sense, The Jazz Singer captures the creation of the first modern pop star. There is another crucial element to The Jazz Singer that can easily be overlooked, simply because it is so obvious. It's the quintessential American immigrant success story, with a happy ending and free of the dark undertones that would spawn great crime sagas like The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America. In that sense, the film can be seen as a veiled autobiography of the Warner brothers themselves and of all the men who built Hollywood. They came from centuries of European tradition, but they broke with the past—and created an industry. Fame can be fleeting, even after a long and successful career. It's difficult to grasp now just how huge a star Al Jolson was during his life. In his memoir of Paris in the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway recalls F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, dreamily asking him whether he agreed that Jolson was greater than Jesus. Jolson had achieved that level of adulation before Sam Warner put him in The Jazz Singer. Jolson helped Warner Bros. become a major player and change the face (or, more precisely, the voice) of movies, while Warner made Jolson an even bigger star. This set shows you how it all happened. Highly recommended. Cast Notes: Al Jolson (Jakie Rabinowitz [Jack Robin]), May McAvoy (Mary Dale), Warner Oland (Cantor Rabinowitz), Eugenie Besserer (Sara Rabinowitz), Otto Lederer (Moisha Yudelson), Robert Gordon (Jakie Rabinowitz [age 13] [as Bobby Gordon]), Richard Tucker (Harry Lee), Cantor Joseff Rosenblatt (Himself [concert recital]). User Comment: aciolino (aciolino@nyc.rr.com) from new york city, 30 May 2004 • There are so many stupid comments expressed in the reviews of this film that it boggles the mind. This film, good or bad, is not about race, racism, attitudes towards black Americans, nor is the character in the film a "minstrel." Holy cow, did anybody actually SEE THE MOVIE? Does anyone know who Al Jolson was and what he accomplished? what he stood for regarding black Americans? what blackface meant in 1920? Good Lord. Such myopic political correctness distorts history, reality, and finds fault where there is none. The Amsterdam News, the leading newspaper of Harlem in the 20's lauded Jolson's performance as one "every black man should be proud of." Attitudes, beliefs, values CHANGE OVER TIME...HELLOOOO!!! The fact that Jolson wore blackface says NOTHING about his, the audiences, the producers, actors, or, song writers atttituds toward race. How dumb have we become? People under the age of five should NOT be allowed to post opinions. Summary: uh, what?. IMDb Rating (05/24/13): 6.6/10 from 4,842 users IMDb Rating (08/15/07): 6.3/10 from 1,172 users
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