The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American part-talkie musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolated sequences). Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and effectively marked the end of the silent film era with the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, featuring six songs performed by Al Jolson. Based on the 1925 play of the same title by Samson Raphaelson, the plot was adapted from his short story "The Day of Atonement".
Plot
Cantor Rabinowitz wants his 13-year-old son, Jacob "Jakie" Rabinowitz, to carry on the generations-old family tradition and become a cantor at the synagogue in the Jewish ghetto of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Jakie has instead taken a liking to singing jazz at the local beer garden. Moisha Yudelson spots the boy and tells Jakie's father, who drags him home. Jakie clings to his mother, Sara, as his father declares, "I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him!" Jakie threatens: "If you whip me again, I'll run away—and never come back!" After the whipping, Jakie kisses his mother goodbye and, true to his word, runs away. At the Yom Kippur service, Rabinowitz mournfully tells a fellow celebrant, "My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight—but now I have no son." As the sacred Kol Nidre is sung, Jakie sneaks back home to retrieve a picture of his loving mother.
More details
author | Alfred A. Cohn Samson Raphaelson |
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contentLocation | New York City |
director | Alan Crosland |
editor | Harold McCord |
genre | drama |
keywords | anglicisation of names anglicize beer garden big break blackface cantor carry on deathbed dressing room even family home first time ghetto hazzan jazz jazz singer jewish ghetto kol nidre little boy love lower east side modern music musical theater my mammy opening night run away sacred sing voice want whip yom kippur |
musicBy | Louis Silvers |
nomination | Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay |
producer | Darryl F. Zanuck |
productionCompany | The Vitaphone Corporation Warner Bros. Pictures |
publisher | Warner Bros. Pictures |
recordedAt | Old Warner Brothers Studio |
theme | musical musical drama romantic drama romantic musical silent |