Not one of the numerous remakes, but the Jazz Singer (1927). I had never seen it. I was aware of it from cultural references, and the fact TCM loves to talk about it. From the discussions on TCM my only take away was that the jazz singer as part of his schtick was to dress up in blackface and make fun of black people. That wasn’t the impression I got at all. To me it was more about having to hide himself from his repressive and domineering Father, who was an Orthodox zealot that wanted his son to follow in his footsteps as a ‘cantor’ (synagogue singer).

The movie shows part of his childhood, how young Jakie Rabinowitz was born to sing and had show business in his blood. I actually found the 13 year old Jakie played by Robert Gordon to be much more appealing, talented and innovative. His dance moves and singing voice were quite interesting (he was doing a Michael Jackson thing with his shoulders and a kind of ‘moon’ walking). The movie was groundbreaking in that sense as the first “talkie”. Much of it was still a silent film, but the singing parts at least had sound (I didn’t watch every second as a rapt student of the film). Gordon is someone you actually want to know more about. About the only blurb in his bio was about his affair while married with Allison Hayes (Attack of the 50 Foot Tall Woman). Which is ironic as its her character in the movie who goes on a 5 story rampage against her philandering husband.

A character in the film was played by Warner Oland, who played either Charlie Chan or another Chinese character in “oriental” makeup over a dozen times! That’s an aspect of Hollywood that doesn’t get talked about near as much as the blackface history! But like I say, one of the few good things that can be said of Al Jolson’s portrayal of his character in blackface was that he did not seem to using it as a punchline or as an opportunity to make fun or demean black people at all.

I just didn’t like the film because I don’t like Al Jolson. He just strikes me as a self aggrandizing ham. In his IMDB bio they mention every other line that he ” ‘The World’s Greatest Entertainer’ for well over 40 years”. The popular phase of his movie career was about 5 years. And his stage performances couldn’t have been seen by more than 3 percent of the countries population, so it seems a bit of a stretch to call him “the world’s greatest for over 40 years”, to me anyway.