The Jazz Singer (1927)

The 1927 film The Jazz Singer is about a jazz singer. It stars Al Jolson and the story is loosely based on his own life. A young Jewish boy comes from a line of Jewish cantors. He wants to be in show business and is disowned by his father. He becomes successful and tries to win his father's forgiveness. The story itself wasn't particularly interesting.

This film is generally remembered as the first talking picture. While this film did indeed have spoken dialogue, I'm not sure this is the first non-silent film ever made and I'm not sure this isn't a silent film. First, the sound-on-disc technology had been around since the early 1920s. D.W. Griffith's short Dream Street features synchronized dialogue. The 1926 feature film Don Juan features pre-recorded sound effects and a musical score, but no spoken dialogue. The Jazz Singer went a little further than those works by having both synchronized dialogue and being feature-length. Still, most of the film is silent with intertitles. There are six musical numbers which are sung. In the middle of two of these musical numbers is a brief bit of dialogue. The first time Jolson talks to the audience who is not supposed to respond and the second time he has a conversation with his mother although most of what she says is unintelligible.

Overall, this wasn't a very good movie. I'll give it some credit for revolutionizing talking pictures, but it probably gets too much credit for this to begin with. It's worth seeing for those who want a very early example of a sound film, but given that it is mostly silent I wouldn't consider this the first real talkie.

66/100
D

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