The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson: DVD Cover
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The Jazz Singer Director: Alan Crosland Cast: Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, Eugénie Besserer

DVD - 3 Disc Set - Black & White Learn more

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  • DVD Release Date: 10/16/2007
  • Original Release: 1927
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Sales Rank: 9,783

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  • Overview
  • Editorial Reviews
  • Scenes
  • Cast & Crew
  • Full Product Details

Features

New digital transfer and immaculately refurbished soundtrack from restored picture elements and original Vitaphone-Sound-on-Disc recordings; Commentary by Ron Hutchinson, founder of The Vitaphone Projects and Nighthawks bandleader Vince Giordano; Vintage Al Jolson shorts, radio show adaptation and movie trailer gallery; Classic homage cartoon "I Love to Singa" ; New feature-length documentary The Dawn of Sound: How the Movies Learned to Talk; Surviving sound excerpts from 1929's Gold Diggers of Broadway; Studio shorts from or celebrating the early sound era; Over 3½ hours worth of rare, historic Vitaphone comedy and music shorts starring the greats of vaudeville and the early sound era, many recently recoved and restored after being thought lost forever; 10 behind-the-scenes photo cards; 12-page Vitaphone program; 20-page souvenir program; 4-page theater herald; 16-page book with vintage document reproductions and DVD features guide; Post-premiere telegram from Al Jolson and Jack Warner

Full Product Details

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- The Jazz Singer - The Movie
1. Overture [4:31]
2. Credits [1:00]
3. Ragtime Jakie [4:54]
4. Our Boy Has Gone [3:48]
5. I Have No Son [3:14]
6. Dirty Hands, Dirty Face [4:29]
7. Toot Toot Tootsie (Goodbye) [2:31]
8. Tear in Your Voice [1:41]
9. Fallen for a Shiksa? [2:44]
10. Mary's Broadway Break [3:14]
11. Kaddish Memories [2:26]
12. Jakie's Broadway Break [3:22]
13. Homecoming [6:06]
14. Blue Skies [2:53]
15. Leave My House! [5:18]
16. Rehearsal [3:25]
17. Illness Strikes [7:13]
18. If He Would Only Sing [3:28]
19. Cry of My Race [5:07]
20. Come Home, Jakie [4:03]
21. Mother of Mine, I Still Have You [4:44]
22. Reconciliation [3:23]
23. Jakie's Choice [3:36]
24. Kol Nidre [3:38]
25. My Mammy [2:25]
26. Exit Music [2:44]
Disc #2 -- The Jazz Singer - The Early Sound Era
1. Introduction [3:08]
2. Thomas Edison [4:45]
3. D.W. Griffith [2:09]
4. Vitaphone System [5:25]
5. DeForest-Case System [5:14]
6. Phonofilms [5:58]
7. Vitaphone Shorts [4:18]
8. Don Juan Et Al. [3:16]
9. Sound Newsreels [4:51]
10. Al Jolson [2:57]
11. Triumph and Tragedy [5:13]
12. Box-Office Success [5:43]
13. Musical Reviews [6:11]
14. Rumor That Will Not Die [5:18]
15. Stars in Transition [5:02]
16. Garbo Talks [4:55]
17. Last Holdout [2:45]
18. Pioneering Efforts [5:48]

Scene Index

Editorial Reviews

On the verge of receivership in 1926, Warner Bros. studio decides to risk its future by investing in the Vitaphone sound system. Warners' first Vitaphone release, Don Juan, was a silent film accompanied by music and sound effects. The studio took the Vitaphone process one step farther in its 1927 adaptation of the Samson Raphaelson Broadway hit The Jazz Singer, incorporating vocal musical numbers in what was essentially a non-talking film. Al Jolson stars as Jakie Rabinowitz, the son of Jewish cantor Warner Oland. Turning his back on family tradition, Jakie transforms himself into cabaret-entertainer Jack Robin. When Jack comes home to visit his parents, he is warmly greeted by his mother (Eugenie Besserer), but is cold-shouldered by his father, who feels that Jack is a traitor to his heritage by singing jazz music. Several subsequent opportunities for a reconciliation are muffed by the stubborn Jack and his equally stubborn father. On the eve of his biggest show-business triumph, Jack receives word that his father is dying. Out of respect, Jack foregoes his opening night to attend Atonement services at the temple and sing the Kol Nidre in his father's place. Through a superimposed image, we are assured that the spirit of Jack's father has at long last forgiven his son. Only twenty minutes or so of Jazz Singer is in any way a "talkie;" all of the Vitaphone sequences are built around Jolson's musical numbers. What thrilled the opening night crowds attending Jazz Singer were not so much the songs themselves but Jolson's adlibbed comments, notably in the scene where he sings "Blue Skies" to his mother. Previous short-subject experiments with sound had failed because the on-screen talent had come off stilted and unnatural; but when Jolson began chattering away in a naturalistic, conversational fashion, the delighted audiences suddenly realized that talking pictures did indeed have the capacity to entertain. Despite its many shortcomings (the storyline goes beyond mawkish, while Jolson's acting in the silent scenes is downright amateurish), The Jazz Singer was a box-office success the like of which no one had previously witnessed. The film did turn-away business for months, propelling Warner Bros. from a shoestring operation into Hollywood's leading film factory. Proof that The Jazz Singer is best viewed within its historical context is provided by the 1953 and 1980 remakes, both interminable wallows in sentimental goo. Worse still, neither one of those films had Al Jolson--who, in spite of his inadequacies as an actor, was inarguably the greatest musical entertainer of his era. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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