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The Jazz Singer
- 101 statements
- 18 feature instances
- 13 referencing feature instances
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The Jazz Singer | |
The Jazz Singer | page |
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The Jazz Singer | comment |
The Jazz Singer, a 1927 musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and released by Warner Bros., tells the story of Jakie Rabinowitz (Al Jolson), the son of a Jewish cantor, who declines to follow in his father's footsteps. Instead, he dissembles his Jewish identity while trying to make it in the world of popular music. Just as he's about to hit the big time, his father falls ill, forcing Jakie to choose between his family and his show-biz dreams.While popular legend has given it a reputation as the first "talkie", The Jazz Singer is fundamentally a silent film, with an atmospheric musical backdrop, no sound effects, and dialogue on title cards. It does, however, have several prerecorded songs which are lip-synced (with variable success), and during the filming and recording of one of these songs, Jolson ad-libbed a spoken intro: "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain't heard nothin'!" (Additionally, the film has one short synchronized dialogue scene where Jakie talks to his mother.)Audiences at the time definitely heard something in that.Experiments in recorded film sound were nothing new; as far back as 1894, an Edison film of a violin player was paired with a recording of the instrument. In 1926, the Warner Bros. film Don Juan was released with a prerecorded, instrumental soundtrack, eliminating the need for live accompaniment. Sunrise, a critically adored experimental melodrama released the same year as The Jazz Singer featured a line or two of background chatter as part of the soundtrack. What The Jazz Singer brought to the table was an ambitious use of synchronization (or, as Warner dubbed it, the "Vitaphone" process). Even that, if confined to the songs, might have remained a sterile gimmick. But speech — that was something else. The first "all-talking" picture was The Lights of New York, a gangster film released in 1928.Oh, yeah — the blackface scene. The redeeming element may be that the song — "My Mammy" — reflects Jakie's reconciliation with his own mother; in a way, Jakie is identifying very deeply with the stereotyped "darkie" character he portrays. It was also 1927.The film was adapted from the 1925 play of the same name by Samson Raphaelson, which was based in turn on Raphaelson's own 1922 short story "The Day of Atonement". Warner Oland (who would soon become well known for playing Charlie Chan onscreen) and Eugenie Besserer portray Jakie's father and mother respectively, while May McAvoy plays Mary Dale, a dancer who becomes his girlfriend and showbiz mentor. Real-life cantor Yoselle Rosenblatt appears briefly as himself performing at a concert Jakie attends. And future star Myrna Loy has an uncredited bit part as a chorus girl.There were three remakes of this film, one in 1952 starring Danny Thomas, one as an episode of NBC's Ford Startime anthology series in 1959 starring Jerry Lewis, and one in 1980 starring Neil Diamond (with Laurence Olivier as his father).As of 2023, the movie is now in the Public Domain. | |
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The Jazz Singer | parsed |
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The Jazz Singer | processingComment |
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The Jazz Singer | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
The Jazz Singer / int_1779f10e | type |
"Well Done, Son" Guy | |
The Jazz Singer / int_1779f10e | comment |
"Well Done, Son" Guy: All the Jazz Singer wants is his father's approval. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_1779f10e | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_1779f10e | |
The Jazz Singer / int_26ac510e | type |
Mythology Gag | |
The Jazz Singer / int_26ac510e | comment |
Mythology Gag: Neil Diamond wearing blackface so he can sing with an R&B group is a nod to Al Jolson's blackface routine in the original. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_26ac510e | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_26ac510e | |
The Jazz Singer / int_2b7d29e1 | type |
Artifact Title | |
The Jazz Singer / int_2b7d29e1 | comment |
Artifact Title: Neil Diamond's character does not sing jazz. Also applies to the original film, by modern standards. Al Jolson's character never sings "jazz" as modern audiences expect - aside from the "blackface" scene (which is in the "Traveling Minstrel" tradition) - all of the music would be what we would today identify as "ragtime." "Jazz" in this context is more synonymous with "ruckus" or "noise," actually bringing it in line with its use in the Neil Diamond remake. | |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_2b7d29e1 | |
The Jazz Singer / int_308ac24f | type |
Fantasy-Forbidding Father | |
The Jazz Singer / int_308ac24f | comment |
Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Cantor Rabinowitz. Possibly the Trope Codifier, considering how often later instances of this trope have been assumed to be using The Jazz Singer as their model. | |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
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The Jazz Singer / int_311bcac6 | type |
Beard of Sorrow | |
The Jazz Singer / int_311bcac6 | comment |
Beard of Sorrow: Neil Diamond version, after his Heroic BSoD. | |
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The Jazz Singer / int_33029735 | type |
Dies Wide Open | |
The Jazz Singer / int_33029735 | comment |
Dies Wide Open: Cantor Rabinowitz in the original, oddly enough, closes his eyes first, slumps, and then opens them again after he dies. | |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_33029735 | |
The Jazz Singer / int_49180a5f | type |
Non-Actor Vehicle | |
The Jazz Singer / int_49180a5f | comment |
Non-Actor Vehicle: The 1980 version was this for Neil Diamond. While his performance "won" the first Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor, the soundtrack was a big hit so his career held up. | |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
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The Jazz Singer / int_4e7c4536 | type |
Wham Line | |
The Jazz Singer / int_4e7c4536 | comment |
Wham Line: In the era of silent film, hearing Jakie actually speak the line "You ain't heard nothing yet!" came as a shock to a number of viewers at the time. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_4e7c4536 | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_4e7c4536 | |
The Jazz Singer / int_51a12a6f | type |
Hong Kong Dub | |
The Jazz Singer / int_51a12a6f | comment |
Hong Kong Dub: Jolson's singing appears to have been recorded live. But the first song, the scene where a child Jakie is singing in a club, is dubbed very very badly. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_51a12a6f | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_51a12a6f | |
The Jazz Singer / int_7453bc5b | type |
Spared by the Adaptation | |
The Jazz Singer / int_7453bc5b | comment |
Spared by the Adaptation: Cantor Rabinowitz in the 1980 remake. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_7453bc5b | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
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The Jazz Singer / int_81a1960f | type |
Silence Is Golden | |
The Jazz Singer / int_81a1960f | comment |
Silence Is Golden: Oddly, for a film that is rightly remembered as ushering in talking pictures, the bulk of the original is silent. The use of sound is confined to 1) Jolson's songs and 2) one four-minute dialogue scene (when Jack comes home to see his mother). | |
The Jazz Singer / int_81a1960f | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
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The Jazz Singer / int_b9a22821 | type |
Jive Turkey | |
The Jazz Singer / int_b9a22821 | comment |
Jive Turkey: In the 1980 version, when the black nightclub audience discovers the blackface ruse, one guy angrily shouts "That ain't no brotha! That's a white boy!" | |
The Jazz Singer / int_b9a22821 | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_b9a22821 | |
The Jazz Singer / int_c132c0c5 | type |
I Have No Son! | |
The Jazz Singer / int_c132c0c5 | comment |
I Have No Son!: In both versions, but much sillier in the remake. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_c132c0c5 | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_c132c0c5 | |
The Jazz Singer / int_e796ce97 | type |
Blackface | |
The Jazz Singer / int_e796ce97 | comment |
Blackface: One of the most famous examples in film in the 1927 version, and one of the most infamous examples in the 1980 version! The other two versions did not use it, though the 1959 TV version substitutes it with clown makeup. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_e796ce97 | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_e796ce97 | |
The Jazz Singer / int_e9a3a1ed | type |
Never Learned to Read | |
The Jazz Singer / int_e9a3a1ed | comment |
Never Learned to Read: In the 1927 film, Jakie's mother has to have a neighbor read the letters Jakie sends home. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_e9a3a1ed | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_e9a3a1ed | |
The Jazz Singer / int_f1492605 | type |
Redemption Equals Death | |
The Jazz Singer / int_f1492605 | comment |
Redemption Equals Death: Inverted in the original; Cantor Rabinowitz dies after Jack returns to the synagogue and sings, thus earning his father's forgiveness. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_f1492605 | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Jazz Singer / int_f1492605 | |
The Jazz Singer / int_fa6bfde9 | type |
Have a Gay Old Time | |
The Jazz Singer / int_fa6bfde9 | comment |
Have a Gay Old Time: In the original, Jakie's producer warns him that he'll "queer (him)self on Broadway" if he skips the show to sing Kol Nidre. | |
The Jazz Singer / int_fa6bfde9 | featureApplicability |
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The Jazz Singer / int_name | type |
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The Jazz Singer |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Lonesome | seeAlso |
The Jazz Singer | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
Blackface / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
Briefer Than They Think / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
Condemned by History / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
I Have No Son! / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
Judaism and Jewish Culture in Media / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
Minstrel Shows / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
Naturalized Name / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
Scylla and Charybdis / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
The Roaring '20s / int_7d57932a | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
Ur-Example / int_7d57932a | |
RomeoAndJuliet | seeAlso |
The Jazz Singer | |
The Jazz Singer | hasFeature |
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies / int_7d57932a |
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Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.