Cinema
The Jazz Singer
Alan Crosland · 1927
Synopsis
New York, at the turn of the century. Jakie Rabinowitz, thirteen, son of a cantor on the Lower East Side who wants him to succeed him at the synagogue, sings popular songs in a café; his father whips him and the boy runs away. Ten years later, now Jack Robin, he sings jazz; a dancer, Mary Dale, notices him in San Francisco, and he gets a part in a Broadway revue. On the eve of Yom Kippur, his father falls gravely ill, on the very evening the opening night is scheduled.
Context
The film is drawn from a play by Samson Raphaelson first staged on Broadway in 1925, itself derived from one of his short stories. It speaks only when people sing in it and in a few rare lines; the rest is silent, with intertitles. The stage line that its performer, Al Jolson, launched without a written text before a song, “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet”, has remained the symbol of talking cinema. Jolson plays part of his role with his face blackened, a music-hall convention then common. The premiere took place in New York on 6 October 1927, on the eve of the Day of Atonement.
Who it is for
A film of an hour and a half, silent for the most part, with six songs and a few synchronised lines of dialogue. The lead actor appears in several scenes made up as a Black man.
Prizes and reception
Honorary Oscar to Warner Bros. for this pioneering sound film, and added in 1996 to the National Film Registry.
Sources for this page 9
The pages consulted to check this page.