The Jazz Singer
Short description
The Jazz Singer centres on Jakie Rabinowitz, the son of a synagogue cantor who expects him to follow generations of family tradition. Jakie instead wants to sing jazz, and after his father learns he has been performing in public, the two break and Jakie leaves home. He reinvents himself as Jack Robin and pursues a stage career, aided by Mary Dale, a singer he becomes involved with, while his success and his family's expectations pull against each other.
Alan Crosland directed the film, which followed Don Juan in his filmography and preceded General Crack. Alfred A. Cohn wrote the screenplay, Darryl F. Zanuck produced, and the credited cast runs to 32 performers. Al Jolson plays Jakie, with May McAvoy as Mary Dale, Warner Oland as Cantor Rabinowitz, Eugenie Besserer as Sara Rabinowitz, Otto Lederer as Moisha Yudelson and Robert Gordon as the young Jakie.
Released in October 1927 and running 96 minutes, the film is a drama with music, made by Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. and The Vitaphone Corporation. It took about 3 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from 51 critics' reviews, while on TMDB it has 6.1 out of 10 from 259 votes, so audiences there rate it slightly lower than critics do.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is widely regarded as the first full-length motion picture with a synchronized musical score, synchronized singing, and dubbed dialogue, although it was originally intended to have no dialogue at all, only singing. All the lines were improvised by the lead actor Al Jolson (1886-1950), and Harry M. Warner (1881-1958), one of the founders of Warner Bros., decided to keep these scenes in the film.
- October 6, 1927 – the premiere date of 'The Jazz Singer' – is considered the birthday of sound cinema.
- This is the first sound feature film.
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