The Jazz Singer

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Template:Infobox FilmThe 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.

1 Overview
- 1.1 Plot summary
2 Award nominations
3 External links

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Overview

While many earlier sound films had dialogue, all were short subjects. D.W. Griffith's feature Dream Street (1921) 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 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.

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Plot summary

Image:Al Jolson Jazz Singer.JPG

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jewish cantor Rabinowitz (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.

Approximately ten years later, Jakie has changed his name to Jack Robin (Al Jolson), an anglicized name that represents a rejection of his Jewish faith. Jack is invited to perform in the nightclub and is introduced to the crowd: "Jack Robin will sing 'Dirty Hands, Dirty Face.' They say he's good — we shall see." Jack tells his table companion: "Wish me luck, Pal — I'll certainly need it."

He sings a full-throated rendition of Dirty Hands, Dirty Face (Jolson's first musical performance in the film) about the joys of having a young son. His song is received enthusiastically by the audience. Next, Jack entertains the cabaret crowd with a rousing rendition of "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", including a wide variety of creative whistle sounds. Immediately after his performance, Jack is introduced to beautiful dancer Mary Dale (May McAvoy) who has admired his performance from her table in the audience. He tells her: "I caught your act in Salt Lake, Miss Dale — I think you're wonderful." She has noticed the feeling he injects into his jazz singing: "There are lots of jazz singers, but you have a tear in your voice." "I'm glad you think so — ," he replies. She suggests helping him with his career: "Perhaps I can help you."

The film cuts to the Rabinowitz home, where Cantor Rabinowitz instructs a young, would-be cantor to sing. To keep in touch with his family, Jack secretly writes to his mother:

"Dear Mama: I'm getting along great, making $250.00 a week. A wonderful girl, Mary Dale, got me my big chance. Write me c/o State Theater in Chicago. Last time you forgot and addressed me Jakie Rabinowitz. Jack Robin is my name now. Your loving son, Jakie."

His mother wonders if he has further rejected his Jewish heritage by falling in love with a Gentile: "Maybe he's fallen in love with a shiksa." When Sara shows her husband the letter, he angrily rebukes her: "I told you never to open his letters — we have no son!" Sara weeps silently to herself.

Meanwhile, Mary has introduced him to an impresario and is responsible for getting him a break that puts him on the vaudeville circuit. He tours with Mary's theatre company, and is thrilled by the experience. Sadly they must part for she has accepted a role on Broadway.

In Chicago while on tour, Jack's memories of his Cantor father are stirred by a special matinee concert of sacred songs he attends, sung by Cantor Rosenblatt. While en route through a train station, Jack learns that he too has a chance to appear in a Broadway revue bringing him back to New York, his boyhood home.

It is Cantor Rabinowitz's sixtieth birthday. Relatives and friends bring presents which include chicken, a large jug of wine, and three identical gifts — prayer shawls, "just what he needs," says Sara. It is also the day of Jack's homecoming.

Jack is greeted warmly by his mother in his home after his long absence. On his father's piano, he sings and plays Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" for her, one of the songs he will try out in the Broadway show. As he finishes the jazzed-up number, his stern father enters, sees the pair, expresses deep upset, and shouts "Stop!" Jack tries to get his father to understand his more contemporary viewpoint, but his traditionalist father can't believe his disrespectful son. Jack is disowned and banished again by his father's orders: "Leave my house! I never want to see you again — you jazz singer!" Jack offers a final plea for understanding from his father: "I came home with a heart full of love, but you don't want to understand. Some day you'll understand, the same as Mama does." Sara fears Jack will never return: "He came back once, Papa, but — he'll never come back again."

In the two weeks after being thrown out of his own house, and one night before opening night on Broadway, Jack's father becomes gravely ill. He is asked to choose between the show and duty to his father — to sing "Kol Nidre" in his sick father's place in the temple for Yom Kippur the following night. But he also would have to miss his big opening night performance.

Dress rehearsal is at one o'clock the next day. Jack is told to "come full of pep!" On "The Eve of the Day of Atonement," Yudleson tells the Jewish elders: "For the first time, we have no Cantor on the Day of Atonement." Pale and emaciated lying in his bed, Cantor Rabinowitz tells Sara in his bedroom that he cannot perform on the eve of Yom Kippur, the most sacred of holy days: "My heart is breaking, Mama. I cannot sing. My son came to me in my dreams — he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully. If he would only sing like that tonight — surely he would be forgiven."

Jack returns to his home after the rehearsal. When Yudleson finds Jack at home, he assumes that he has come to replace Cantor Rabinowitz in the synagogue for Yom Kippur: "I knew you'd come. The choir is waiting." Sara encourages him as a way to heal his father: "Maybe if you sing — your Papa will get well — ." But just then, the producer and Mary arrive to urge him to return with them to the opening of April Follies. Mary asks him: "You're not thinking of quitting us, are you, Jack?" His producer threatens that his career will be ruined if he fails to appear on opening night: "You'll queer yourself on Broadway — you'll never get another job."

Jack realizes what a momentous choice he has: "It's a choice between giving up the biggest chance of my life — and breaking my mother's heart — I have no right to do either." Mary reminds him of his former words: "Were you lying when you said your career came before everything?" Yudleson pressures him too: "You must sing tonight." Jack is uncertain about that possibility: "I haven't sung Kol Nidre since I was a little boy." Yudleson assures Jack: "What a little boy learns — he never forgets." The producer warns: "Don't be a fool, Jack!" Jack turns to his mother, who tells him to "do what is in your heart, Jakie — if you sing and God is not in your voice — your father will know." The producer reminds Jack of his career: "You're a jazz singer at heart!"

At curtain time, an announcement is made to the audience: "Ladies and Gentlemen, there will be no performance this evening — " For one night, Jack becomes Jakie Rabinowitz, singing "Kol Nidre" in the synagogue in his father's place, forcing the opening night cancellation of the show. His father listens from his deathbed to the nearby ceremony. Now that his son is reconciled to the old world's values and to the family, Cantor Rabinowitz's last forgiving words are: "Mamma, we have our son again." In a super-imposed image, we see the spirit of Jack's father at his side in the synagogue. Mary describes Jack perfectly: "— a jazz singer — singing to his God."

"The season passes — and time heals — the show goes on." The show is postponed, but opens successfully the next day. Jack sings jazz in the opening theatre performance, the day after his father's death. In the final scene, his proud mother sits in the crowded Winter Garden Theater audience, listening and weeping. In blackface, Jack croons the song "My Mammy" to her.

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