Warner Bros, 1928
Starring Al Jolson, Josephine Dunn, Betty Bronson, and Davey Lee
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Music and Lyrics by various
The Jazz Singer was a big enough hit for Warners to rush Jolson into another tale of heartbreak. This one would be even bigger, with more pathos, more drama, and far more Jolson. Jolson was now the biggest star on the planet...and it's part of the reason that this movie, far more than The Jazz Singer, wound up being the reason the studios decided sound film was here to stay. How does the monumental blockbuster hit of 1928 look now? Let's begin at that most 20's of gathering places, the speakeasy, where waiter Al Stone's (Jolson) life is about to change, and find out...
The Story: Al's been trying to get into the big time for years. He finally rates notice when he performs a song he wrote for lovely but superficial Molly Malone (Dunn) and is spotted by a Broadway producer. Molly claims to fall for Al right there and then, but she's more interested in his success than him.
Al does become a huge Broadway star, but his marriage with Molly is empty. She's more interested in her affair with the more traditionally handsome John Perry (Reed Howes). Al's only true loves are performing and his child Sonny (Lee). Fed up with him being more interested in his career and the kid than her, Molly takes Sonny to Paris and gets a divorce. Al loses his job and becomes a bum, until he returns to Blackie's Cafe and is encouraged back into the limelight by sweet Grace (Bronson), who has always really loved him. His big comeback is hounded by tragedy, but it's Grace who reminds him that, even when those we love can only be there in spirit, we can still sing for them.
The Song and Dance: Some of Jolson's best song performances can be found here. "Sonny Boy" would prove to be such a phenomenon, it launched a series of equally melodramatic sob stories and sad songs performed by similar nervy entertainers in early talkies. Jolson comes across much better on more vibrant songs, especially the opening "It All Depends On You." His interaction with Davey Lee really is genuinely sweet; they do seem like a fond father and son, making his reaction when he loses him totally understandable.
The Numbers: Our first sound sequence has Al admitting to Molly and the speakeasy audience that "It All Depends on You." After he's spotted by the Broadway producer, he sings about how "I'm Sittin' On Top of the World." His first Broadway number gets him into a tuxedo for "There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder." The massive hit "Sonny Boy" first turns up as a lullaby for Sonny after Al argues with Molly and we see her indifference to husband and son. He sings it again twice more, when Sonny is in the hospital, and in the finale in blackface while his heart is supposedly breaking.
Trivia: There was originally another number for Jolson, the Mexican-tinged ruffles-and-castanets routine "The Spaniard Who Blighted My Life." The song's writer Billy Merson claimed that he made his living singing the song, and Jolson's version would diminish his. The song was cut from UK prints of the film...which are currently the only prints to survive today.
What I Don't Like: Hooo boy. At least The Jazz Singer had Warner Oland as Jolson's concerned father and Alan Crosland's inventive direction going for it. All this one has is an overheated soap opera plot that's as distasteful as it is silly. The histrionics are way over Jolson's head, making him look less like a jazz singer who just lost his kid and more like the fool of the title. No one comes remotely close to his scenery chewing. Dunn is bitter but doesn't have much to do, and Bronson barely appears and fades into the woodwork when she does. The blackface is saved for the last ten minutes or so, but he does still wear it, and there's also his treatment of his slightly stereotypical black valet.
Also, there's the entire problem of it being a part-talkie. The sound lurches in and out. One minute, everyone is emoting in silence; the next, Jolson is blaring "Keep Smiling at Trouble" to the room. It's disconcerting, to say the least. They should have either gone full-talkie (which they would for Jolson's next vehicle, Say It With Music) or left it silent.
The Big Finale: This may have been what convinced the studios to take a chance on sound film, but nowadays, it's only of interest to the most ardent fans of Jolson and film historians.
Home Media: DVD only from the Warner Archives.
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