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THE DVD SHELF: Jolson's "Jazz Singer," "ShowBusiness" and a Fragrant "Ratatouille"
By Steven Suskin
04 Nov 2007
This month's column discusses the long-awaited arrival of the early talking picture "The Jazz Singer," with a stunning array of extras; Dori Berinstein's musical theatre documentary "Show Business: The Road to Broadway"; and the delectable animated charmer, "Ratatouille."
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The owners of catalogues of vintage movies are coining a mint, presumably, by issuing all these old films on DVD. In the process, though, they have seen the wisdom of cleaning up and restoring many of their titles. Cleaning up is not the operative term for "The Jazz Singer," that legendary Al Jolson title that has gone down in history as the first talking picture ever — which, in fact, it isn't. Or, as Mr. Jolson might say, it ain't. But close enough for our purposes.
Fans of legendary old movies — or theatre fans curious to get a glimpse of what this greatest entertainer of his era was really like in performance — might well have caught "The Jazz Singer" before, either in a revival house or on late-night TV. In either case, it was undoubtedly old and scratchy, a primitive print of a primitive film. In this case, the above-mentioned wisdom of the owners of the old Warner Bros.-Vitaphone catalogue has paid off handsomely for the consumer. Here is the "Three-Disc Deluxe Edition" of Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer [Warner]. You might well turn to this in expectation of a state-of-the-art restoration of the 1927 film, and you will be more than satisfied with the results. But — to once more quote Mr. J. — you ain't seen nothin' yet.
The numerous bonus features include "An Intimate Dinner in Honor of Warner Bros. Silver Jubilee," which is basically a command appearance of Warner employees in evening clothes at a banquet table bowing sheepishly to the camera. This being in September 1930; significantly enough, Mr. Jolson is neither seen nor mentioned. (Warner stars Barrymore, Arliss and Barthelmess are off on location, but they send cables for the occasion.) Most of these stars are long gone and forgotten, but the banquetgoers include some very special guests who were coincidentally on contract just then: Jerome Kern, looking especially uncomfortable, sitting with his collaborator Otto Harbach; Lorenz Hart, smiling and happy, with his partner Richard Rodgers (whose ears are sticking out); and Oscar Hammerstein, shy and silent, with Sigmund Romberg. None of them had an especially good time with the Bros. Warner, although they each went on to make fine film musicals elsewhere; but here they are, and the evidence is most happily presented for us to see. The short is capped with the smiling and vivacious Marilyn Miller, another sample of Broadway royalty who was wasted by Warner and never did establish herself on screen. Although perhaps the owners of the catalogue will one day give us "Sunny," so we can see for ourselves.
The third of three discs includes 24 Vitaphone shorts, or I suppose we should say vintage Vitaphone shorts. These were used as filler programming, as well as teasers for Vitaphone features. Watching these serves as a virtual vaudeville revue, as many of these are simply transplanted acts. Of interest among the group are Elsie Janis, Lyda Roberti, Eddie Foy Jr. (wearing vampire teeth and doing eccentric dancing), Baby Rose Marie (30 years before she joined Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore), and George Burns and Gracie Allen doing their set piece, "Lambchops."
But all this takes us away from discussion of "The Jazz Singer" itself. This was a 1925 hit drama about the son of a cantor who forsook his religious upbringing for ragtime. Cast out of the house by his stern father, the boy grows into a great stage star. George Jessel, who starred in Samson Raphaelson's play on Broadway, refused to sabotage his career by playing it on the screen. Jolson wound up with the part, and the rest — as they say — is history. This is not what we might call a talking picture; most of the film is a standard silent, with subtitle cards. When the time came for singing, though, Warner and Vitaphone saw the wisdom of giving the ticketbuyers access to the great Broadway star Jolson singing just like he did at the Winter Garden on Broadway. Vitaphone had been in use for more than a year prior to the opening of "The Jazz Singer," initially with a musical track for the 1926 John Barrymore-starrer "Don Juan." Talking had been heard from the screen as well; Jolson himself made a short called "Al Jolson in A Plantation Act," singing three of his hits in front of a prop shack with a couple of live roosters in the background. (This short is among the bonuses that come with "The Jazz Singer," and gives us a rather more authentic feeling for Jolson's performance style than the musical sections of "The Jazz Singer.")
All in all, this is a remarkable box set; not so much for "The Jazz Singer" itself — a creaky and not especially timeless motion picture — but for all that accompanies it. And let us add that, yes, Jolson performs in the grotesque makeup popularly known as blackface; in a dressing room scene, the director actually shows us — and the film's blonde leading lady — the star transforming himself from Jolson to the Mammy singer. Continued...
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