In August of 1926, the Warner Brothers introduced Vitaphone—an analog sound-on-disc system—with the release of their silent film Don Juan. While there was no dialogue, the movie had been retrofitted with a symphonic musical score and sound effects.  While Don Juan was a hit at the box office, the film failed to recoup the massive budget the studio spent on it. Little more than a year later in October of 1927, The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, premiered at the Warner Theater in New York City. Aided by star Al Jolson’s popularity, The Jazz Singer broke box office records and signaled the end of the silent film era.

The Jazz Singer is really the age-old story of the battle between generations. As the film begins, Jakie Rabinowitz (Bobby Gordon) is a 13-year-old with a great voice and a fondness for jazz. The son of a New York City Jewish cantor—a Jewish religious official who conducts the musical part of the services—Jakie is expected to be the next in a line of five generations of cantors in the family. For Jakie’s father (Warner Oland), the thought of entertaining another profession is utter blasphemy. When Jakie announces his intention to become a jazz singer, his father disowns him.  Jakie’s mother (Eugenie Besserer), meanwhile, has little to say in the matter. Jakie and his parent’s part ways and several years go by. Jakie (now played by Al Jolson), now going by the name Jack Robin, is struggling to make a name for himself in show business.

Jazz Singer (1927)Eventually, a star dancer named Mary Dale (Mary McAvoy) befriends Jack and helps move his career along. On the eve of his Broadway debut, Jack must choose between his budding stardom and his religious faith. The Jazz Story is a schmaltzy but sweet tale. What really sells the film is the use of sound, specifically Jolson’s singing. Those who’ve never seen the movie, may be surprised to find that it’s actually still largely a silent film,  minus Jolson’s numbers—which includes “Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’Bye),” “Blue Skies,” and “My Mammy”–-and the few snippets of conversation that surround them. Intertitle cards are used for a majority of the narration. However, imagine the excitement 1927 movie audiences must have felt when Jolson turned around and said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” Hearing the first live-recorded, spoken words in a motion picture must have been exciting.

A landmark film, it seems appropriate that Warner Brothers kick of their 90th birthday celebration by releasing The Jazz Singer on Blu-ray. This was the film that put Warner Brothers on the map and it’s nice to see them acknowledging that. The Jazz Singer has been remade on three separate occasions to varying degrees of success. Stars Danny Thomas, Jerry Lewis and Neil Diamond all brought something to the table, but none of them had the charisma and showmanship of Al Jolson.

Framed in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio and presented in 1080p, Warner’s transfer is very good for a film that’s 86 years old. The image features deep, inky blacks and fairly consistent contrast levels. There are a few occasions where the image looks a bit washed out, but on the whole, the look of the film is impressive. Film grain is present, with no excessive DNR in evidence. Detail is quite remarkable, allowing for close-ups and establishing shots.

Jazz Singer 2 (1927)The mono DTS-HD Master Audio track is fairly clean, considering its age. While the dialogue is always clear and intelligible, there is a noticeable hiss in several sections of the track. It should come as no surprise that the track is at its best during Jolson’s various song performances. In comparison, the spoken dialogue sounds quite a bit lower than the musical numbers, but again, given its age, the track is quite impressive.

English SDH, French, Spanish, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Polish subtitles are included.

The following special features are available:

With the exception of five trailers from other Al Jolson films, everything from the 2007 DVD edition has been carried over to this set.

  • An 88-Page Collectable Book: All of the printed materials found in the previous box set have been integrated into this well put together book. We get essays about the film, actor biographies, numerous promotional and production photographs, and reproductions of the film’s marketing materials, including a printed program distributed at the film’s screening. It’s always neat to see the materials that audiences who originally went to see a film might have received. It just adds to the overall experience.

Disc One:

  • Audio Commentary with Ron Hutchinson of the “Vitaphone Project” and Vintage Music Expert Vince Giordano: Interesting and informative, Hutchinson and Giordano provide a lot of technical background as to how the filming was accomplished. They also provide a nice bit of background on Al Jolson and the other cast members. Perhaps most interestingly, they discuss how Al Jolson came to be cast after George Jessel declined the part. Hutchinson also explains the goals of the “Vitaphone Project.”
  • Al Jolson in “A Plantation Act” (9:59, SD):  A 1926 short featuring Al Jolson in blackface and tattered overalls, set against a rural southern backdrop singing “When the Red Red Robin Starts Bob Bob Bobbin’ Along,” “April Showers,” and “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody.” Enormously popular when it was initially shown, Jolson and the filmmakers apparently anticipated this, having worked two curtain calls into the end of the film. It is presented with DD 2.0 mono sound and is tinted somewhere in the magenta to purple spectrum range. This was considered a lost film for over 50 years until a silent print was discovered in the 1990s mis-labeled as a Jazz Singer trailer, and the folks at the Vitaphone Project were able to restore the severely damaged disc and recover the soundtrack.
  • An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros.’ Silver Jubilee (11:15, SD): In this decidedly odd featurette, “Mr. and Mrs. Warner Bros.” are congratulated on their anniversary, after which, their child, “Little Miss Vitaphone,” introduces all of the stars and dignitaries in attendance including stars Loretta Young, Walter Pidgeon, Walter Huston, Frank McHugh, Joe E. Brown, Edward G Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., songwriters Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, and many others. The quality here is very rough, but it’s a cute piece nonetheless.
  • I Love to Singa (8:15, SD):A classic Merrie Melodies cartoon from 1936.
  • Hollywood Handicap (10:19, SD): A 1938 MGM short directed by Buster Keaton set at a racetrack. It features cameos from several Hollywood stars including Al Jolson and his then-wife Ruby Keeler.
  • A Day at Santa Anita (18:03, SD): A 1937 Technicolor Vitaphone short, again set at a racetrack, features cameos from Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler.
  • June 2, 1947 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast (58:20) A  complete radio broadcast of The Jazz Singer.  Hosted by William Keighley and starring Al Jolson and Gail Patrick with Musical Director Louis Silvers, this adaptation has less of a Hollywood ending. Note: the audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 and the broadcast doesn’t appear to have chapter stops.
  • Theatrical Trailer (7:10, SD) Used to promote the film as it (and Vitaphone sound installations) rolled across the country after the New York premiere, a newly filmed introduction and premiere footage are shown, before a clip from the actual film even appears.

Disc Two:

  • The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk (1:25:13, SD): This feature-length documentary provides a solid overview of the evolution of sound in motion pictures. From Thomas Edison’s early experiments, to the sound on film experiments of Theodore Case working with Lee De Forest, to the Bell Labs breakthroughs in electrical recording and amplification in the 1920s that led to the commercialization of the sound on disc process used by Vitaphone and on to the optical sound on film process used by used by Fox Movietone, everything is covered up to the widespread of adaptation of sound by the early to mid thirties. New and archival interviews are conducted with a myriad of folks, including the following: Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project, “The Speed of Sound” author Scott Eyman, film historian Rudy Behlmer, Jack Stanley of the Thomas Edison Menlo Park Museum, Robert Gitt of the UCLA Film and Television Archives, Princeton University history professor Emily Thompson, UCLA film historian Jonathan Kuntz, Jack Warner, Jr., sound designer/director Ben Burtt, critic/historian Leonard Maltin, Case Research Laboratory Museum Director Eileen McHugh, bandleader/period music authority Vince Giordano, actress Thelma White, Broadway/TV star Rose Marie, producer A.C. Lyles (no Hollywood documentary would be complete without him!), sound designer Dane A. Davis, composer/Vitaphone Studio musician Sanford Green, actor Charles “Buddy” Rogers, actor Mickey Rooney, actress Anita Page, author Mark A. Viera, daughter of John Gilbert Leatrice Fountain, and daughter of Harold Lloyd Suzanne Lloyd.
  • Gold Diggers of Broadway Excerpts (15:45, SD): The following are included: “Tip Toe Through the Tulips” (5:28) and the film’s finale (10:11). The finale is missing about a minute at the end, but the audio remains and plays through to completion.
  • The Voice from the Screen (15:30, SD): A rather dry, but interesting short that explains how the vintage Vitaphone process works.
  • Finding His Voice (10:45, SD): An early sound cartoon from 1929.
  • The Voice that Thrilled the World (18:04, SD): A 1943 short explaining how sound came to films.
  • OK For Sound (19:45, SD): A 1946 short that celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the talking picture.
  • When the Talkies Were Young (20:22, SD): From 1955, this short consists of a collection of clips of early appearances by future movie stars like James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck, Clark Gable, and more.

 

Disc Three:

  • Vitaphone Shorts (3:35:13, SD) An astounding 37 shorts, once thought lost forever are on display here. Among the stars you’ll find entertainers like Baby Rose Marie, who would later co-star on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Burns and Allen and the famous Foy Family (The Seven Little Foys) among others. Below is a full list:
  • Elsie Janis in a Vaudeville Act: “Behind the Lines” (7:26)
  • Berando De Pace: “The Wizard of the Mandolin” (10:29)
  • Van and Schenck: “The Pennant Winning Battery of Songland” (9:21)
  • Blossom Seeley and Bennie Fields with the Music Boxes (9:43)
  • Hazel Green and Company (8:11)
  • The Night Court (9:30)
  • The Police Quartette (8:09)
  • Ray Mayer and Edith Evans in “When East Meets West” (8:43)
  • Adele Rowland: “Stories in Song” (9:44)
  • Stoll, Flynn and Company: The “Jazzmania Quintette” (9:37)
  • The Ingenues: “The Band Beautiful” (9:13)
  • The Foy Family in “Chips off the Old Block” (7:42)
  • Dick Rich and His Melodious Monarchs (9:37)
  • Gus Arnheim and His Ambassadors (9:39)
  • Shaw & Lee: “The Beau Brummels” (8:43)
  • Roof Garden Revue Directed By Larry Ceballos (9:33)
  • Trixie Friganza in “My Bag O’ Tricks” (10:02)
  • Green’s Twentieth Century Faydetts (7:12)
  • Sol Violinsky: “The Eccentric Entertainer” (7:17)
  • Ethel Sinclair and Marge La Marr: “At the Seashore” (8:20)
  • Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats (9:29)
  • Baby Rose Marie: “The Child Wonder” (8:34)
  • Burns & Allen in “Lambchops” (8:00)
  • Joe Frisco in “The Happy Hottentots” (10:40)