On October 6, 1927 The Jazz Singer opened and everything in movies changed. The Jazz Singer wasn’t the first sound movie. That was Don Juan in 1926. And only about 25% of The Jazz Singer had sound. But sound was an intrinsic, essential part of the story in The Jazz Singer. And that changed the movies.
The Jazz Singer is a story of conflicts: conflicts between fathers and sons, conflicts between the old ways of the old country and the new ways of the new country, and a man’s internal struggle between his religious duty and his dream. And the story has some eerie echoes, echoes of Al Jolson’s—Asa Yoelson’s—life and echoes of the new media of the sound film which was to replace the well-developed universal art of the silent movie.
And the mixture of silent movie and talkie really works in The Jazz Singer. The portrayals of Cantor Rabinowitz and Yudelson the Kibitzer could have been lampoons in an all-sound picture of just a few years later. But in the conventions of the silent film they are touching and balletic.
I saw The Jazz Singer for the umpteenth time yesterday. And once again I was moved to tears. It’s not just a curiosity. It’s a great story. And Jolson was the greatest entertainer in the world.
