- Published on
Warner Archive Collection DVD Cover
Date of Release: March 26, 1930
Studio: Warner Bros
Director: Michael Curtiz
Producer: Walter Morosco
Cinematographer: Barney McGill
Editor: Owen Marks
Screenplay: Gordon Rigby, Joseph Jackson
Music and Lyrics: Irving Berlin
Sound: George R. Groves
Costumes: Orry-Kelly
Leading Actors:
Al Jolson (Al Fuller)
Lois Moran (Nora Meadows)
Louise Dresser (Mrs. Fuller)
Lowell Sherman (Westy)
Noah Beery (Tonopaw Red)
Hobart Bosworth (Meadows)
Tully Marshall (Slats)
Mitchell Lewis (Tambo)
Lee Moran (Flat Feet)
Jack Curtis (Sheriff)
Stanley Fields (Pig Eyes)
Ray Cooke (Props)
Mammy was a film adaptation of Mr. Bones, an unproduced play by Irving Berlin and James Gleason.
The screenplay was written by Gordon Rigby and Joseph Jackson as a star vehicle for Al Jolson who had starred in the early talkies The Jazz Singer (1927), The Singing Fool (1928), and Say it With Songs (1929).
Mammy was directed by Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian-American director whose incredibly prolific career would span over half a century (more on Curtiz below).
The film was released by Warner Bros in March 1930. Advertising centered around Al Jolson, and the minstrel show within the film. A print ad in Variety showed images of Jolson in a top hat and tails, Jolson in black face, and a marching band in front of a marquee blazing Al Jolson’s name. The ad exclaimed, “Nothing but laughs! Joyous Jolson Jubilee… Jokes, Jazz, Jollity!”
According to Variety, Al Jolson performed in person at the film’s opening, singing “I’m Happy” with Arthur Johnson on the piano. Jolson reportedly told the audience “I hope you’re not kidding me; that you really like this picture, although I suppose in the morning I will read where some cuckoo says it’s lousy.”
Mammy received mixed reviews. Most noted the film was one of the Jolson’s best, and praised Louise Dresser’s performance. Critics also lamented the thin plot and when they mentioned Lois Moran either found her lackluster or described her with belittling language.
Norbert Lusk, writing for Picture Play Magazine, stated “There's a great deal more fun and geniality woven into the mammy-o theme than in Mr. Jolson's early pictures.” Lusk noted the lack of tear-jerking sentimentality Jolson was known for - “…the story does not matter: it's Jolson's singing you want.” Of the leading lady, Lusk wrote “Miss Moran is a nice little heroine.”
Variety described Mammy as “A lively picture playing fast… This picture has something that is now all by itself in America, and that might be worth a strong plug in exploitation–a minstrel show.” The reviewer also made a rare mention of the use of Technicolor, stating it “Looks good.”
Writing for The New Yorker, Robert M. Coates noted that despite his own general dislike of minstrel shows, Al Jolson and Irving Berlin’s score provided “some pleasant moments.”
The Ohio State Lantern’s film and stage critic Seth W. Mattingly, Jr. described Mammy as a “delightful story of minstrel life, with plenty of songs… and plenty of dances.” Mattingly Jr. stated Dressler “plays the title role admirably.”
Al Jolson received a Photoplay award for “Best Performances of the Month (June)”.
Mammy was not commercially successful. As noted by Curtiz’s biographer Alan K. Rode, “Although the picture was one of the more entertaining of Jolson’s movies, Mammy grossed less than $200,000 over its considerable cost.” Musical theatre historian John Kerick states that by 1930, Al Jolson’s “reign as a top Hollywood star was already over.”
An original print of Mammy, including some two-strip Technicolor footage, was discovered in the Netherlands in the early 2000s. The print was restored by the UCLA Film and TV Archive and screened at the UCLA Film & Television Archive Eleventh Festival of Preservation in 2002.
In 2010, Mammy was released on the Warner Archive Collection label in 2010 (which was coincidentally a week shy of the 48th anniversary of director Michael Curtiz’s death). George Feltenstein, a Warner Home Video executive, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times stating that the issue of blackface was carefully considered in releasing Mammy –
“The archive collection makes it possible for us to release a film like this in a historical context as opposed to someone just innocently putting the movie on a shelf in a store not knowing what it is and running the risk of being viewed out of context.”
Modern day reviewers agreed despite the difficult issue of blackface, Al Jolson’s performance was the highlight of an otherwise tepid film. New York Times film critic Dave Kehr noted that Al Jolson was “Simultaneously one of the most significant and most embarrassing show business figures of the 20th century…” and “What once seemed progressive a way of introducing African-American music to a wider public now seems anything but.” Kehr enjoyed the restored Technicolor sequences, stating they “have a bright, busy, carnavalesque look appropriate for numbers like “Yes, We Have No Bananas” and the ribald “Night Boat to Albany.””
Reviewer Glenn Erickson felt that Mammy was one of Al Jolson’s “better musical vehicles” and stated that the film “was clearly intended as a nostalgic return to an earlier era of show business still familiar to the 1930 audience.” Erickson enjoyed the DVD, and stated that despite the limitations of the color restoration, “delivers a very clean transfer of this eighty year-old show.”
Film historian John Howard Reid reported that “the archives did a remarkably good job” with the restoration, but felt that the “Overture" was lacking in its sound. Reid berated the flimsy plot, but noted Al Jolson’s work - “Even at his worst… Jolson is still almost the best thing about Mammy…” Reid also had high praise for Louise Dresser, stating she outshone Jolson, and despite “her rather small” role… you’ll never forget her.” Reid concluded, “Just sit back and enjoy all the standard Irving Berlin minstrelsy.”
I found Mammy tedious and painful to watch. A trite plot, with unlikeable people performing in blackface, and a whimpering sap of a leading lady (Lois Moran, who appeared in the now lost 1929 musicals Words and Music and A Song of Kentucky).
After a 7-minute overture, the opening scene shows a parade taking place in the pouring rain.
Al Jolson sings “I’m Happy” in a torrential downpour and reminisces about “cotton fields and Mammy’s arms.”
The majority of the next 20 minutes are devoted to Meadow’s Merry Minstrels, headlined by the “golden voiced” Al Fuller. The show is intertwined with brief scenes letting the cinematic audience know the show is in financial trouble.
The cinematography of the minstrel show is well done. “Here We Are” is a full company minstrel number, complete with tambourines and banjos. The Technicolor number is cleverly filmed, alternating between the house right box of the theatre, front on midshots and close-ups of the actors, wide shots that allow the film audience to see the full stage picture, and also shots from the wings give a behind-the-scenes feel. The Technicolor unfortunately makes the blackface all the more glaring.
After much hamming and stuttering from Al, it turns out the villainous sheriff longs to be in show business and saves the show by becoming a producer. The show tours successfully, and Al’s Mama is sad that Al keeps leaving. Al embraces Mama and kisses her on the lips before jumping on the next train.
Meanwhile, token-girl-in-the-show Nora is unhappy because her crush Westy is a flirtatious fop who has eyes for every pretty girl but her. Al tries to make Westy jealous by proposing to Nora, but it backfires and everyone thinks they’re engaged for real.
Al sings “Looking at You,” a sweet ballad, sung in the context of a rehearsal. Al is framed by the male ensemble, which is an effective bit of staging and camera work. Nora simpers in the wings.
Al gets drunk and sings an up-tempo reprise of “Looking at You” while sitting at the piano before hopping up for a quick tap dance.
Unaware his gun has been loaded for real, Al shoots Westy on stage during their “comedic” bit.
Evading the police, Al hops the “Night Train to Albany” and returns home to his Mama to tell her he has to “go to Europe for three years.” Al sits at the piano and sings to Mama – “I’m Everything to my Mammy.” Louise Dresser barely gets to speak, and looks like she is acting in a silent film. Al kisses her on the lips multiple times, which feels incredibly awkward.
Al returns to the scene of the crime to face the music. Hank has confessed to the shooting, and Al is a free man once again. The final number, a reprise of “I’m Happy” features another parade, this time in Technicolor. The parade includes a shot of a smiling Black Mammy in the crowd. The film ends with Al singing, “Just let me sing and I’m happy!”
While the sappy plot, Al kissing his mother on the lips repeatedly, and Blackface minstrel numbers were painful to watch, researching the film was a lot of fun, and reminds me why I started this insane project in the first place.
It was fascinating to dive into the career of the aforementioned director Michael Curtiz who worked in film from the silent era at the turn of the 20th century through to Hollywood’s Golden Age in the 1960s. Curtiz directed over 170 films in a variety of genres, and is credited with discovering Erroll Flynn and Doris Day. His extensive film credits include the movie musicals Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), This is the Army (1943), Night and Day (1946), Romance on the High Seas (1948), Young Man with a Horn (1950), The Jazz Singer (1952), and White Christmas (1954). I feel it’s important to also mention he directed the film classic Casablanca (1942). You can see glimmers of his future potential in Mammy, but I’m looking forward to getting to his later work.
IMDb lists Orry-Kelly as the (uncredited) costume designer. Given that Orry Kelly was busy designing stage shows in New York between 1927 and 1930, and didn’t join Warner Bros until 1932, it’s doubtful the listing is correct. Despite this, I had so much fun learning about this incredible Australian who left his hometown of Kiama to pursue a creative life in the United States. Orry George Kelly, whose name was hyphenated to Orry-Kelly to make him sound French, worked on over 300 films, won 3 Oscars for Costume Design (An American In Paris (1952), Les Girls (1958), and Some Like it Hot (1960)) and was famous for creating iconic looks for Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Rosalind Russell, and Shirley Maclaine. Gillian Armstrong directed a brilliant documentary about Orry Kelly, Women He’s Undressed, which was released in 2015 and is now available to stream. A short but informative biography by Robert Parkinson, Orry Kelly: Miss Weston’s Protege - The Story of a Great Hollywood Costume Designer was also released in 2015, though is already surprisingly difficult to come by.
On to the next!
Studio: Warner Bros
Director: Michael Curtiz
Producer: Walter Morosco
Cinematographer: Barney McGill
Editor: Owen Marks
Screenplay: Gordon Rigby, Joseph Jackson
Music and Lyrics: Irving Berlin
Sound: George R. Groves
Costumes: Orry-Kelly
Leading Actors:
Al Jolson (Al Fuller)
Lois Moran (Nora Meadows)
Louise Dresser (Mrs. Fuller)
Lowell Sherman (Westy)
Noah Beery (Tonopaw Red)
Hobart Bosworth (Meadows)
Tully Marshall (Slats)
Mitchell Lewis (Tambo)
Lee Moran (Flat Feet)
Jack Curtis (Sheriff)
Stanley Fields (Pig Eyes)
Ray Cooke (Props)
Mammy was a film adaptation of Mr. Bones, an unproduced play by Irving Berlin and James Gleason.
The screenplay was written by Gordon Rigby and Joseph Jackson as a star vehicle for Al Jolson who had starred in the early talkies The Jazz Singer (1927), The Singing Fool (1928), and Say it With Songs (1929).
Mammy was directed by Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian-American director whose incredibly prolific career would span over half a century (more on Curtiz below).
The film was released by Warner Bros in March 1930. Advertising centered around Al Jolson, and the minstrel show within the film. A print ad in Variety showed images of Jolson in a top hat and tails, Jolson in black face, and a marching band in front of a marquee blazing Al Jolson’s name. The ad exclaimed, “Nothing but laughs! Joyous Jolson Jubilee… Jokes, Jazz, Jollity!”
According to Variety, Al Jolson performed in person at the film’s opening, singing “I’m Happy” with Arthur Johnson on the piano. Jolson reportedly told the audience “I hope you’re not kidding me; that you really like this picture, although I suppose in the morning I will read where some cuckoo says it’s lousy.”
Mammy received mixed reviews. Most noted the film was one of the Jolson’s best, and praised Louise Dresser’s performance. Critics also lamented the thin plot and when they mentioned Lois Moran either found her lackluster or described her with belittling language.
Norbert Lusk, writing for Picture Play Magazine, stated “There's a great deal more fun and geniality woven into the mammy-o theme than in Mr. Jolson's early pictures.” Lusk noted the lack of tear-jerking sentimentality Jolson was known for - “…the story does not matter: it's Jolson's singing you want.” Of the leading lady, Lusk wrote “Miss Moran is a nice little heroine.”
Variety described Mammy as “A lively picture playing fast… This picture has something that is now all by itself in America, and that might be worth a strong plug in exploitation–a minstrel show.” The reviewer also made a rare mention of the use of Technicolor, stating it “Looks good.”
Writing for The New Yorker, Robert M. Coates noted that despite his own general dislike of minstrel shows, Al Jolson and Irving Berlin’s score provided “some pleasant moments.”
The Ohio State Lantern’s film and stage critic Seth W. Mattingly, Jr. described Mammy as a “delightful story of minstrel life, with plenty of songs… and plenty of dances.” Mattingly Jr. stated Dressler “plays the title role admirably.”
Al Jolson received a Photoplay award for “Best Performances of the Month (June)”.
Mammy was not commercially successful. As noted by Curtiz’s biographer Alan K. Rode, “Although the picture was one of the more entertaining of Jolson’s movies, Mammy grossed less than $200,000 over its considerable cost.” Musical theatre historian John Kerick states that by 1930, Al Jolson’s “reign as a top Hollywood star was already over.”
An original print of Mammy, including some two-strip Technicolor footage, was discovered in the Netherlands in the early 2000s. The print was restored by the UCLA Film and TV Archive and screened at the UCLA Film & Television Archive Eleventh Festival of Preservation in 2002.
In 2010, Mammy was released on the Warner Archive Collection label in 2010 (which was coincidentally a week shy of the 48th anniversary of director Michael Curtiz’s death). George Feltenstein, a Warner Home Video executive, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times stating that the issue of blackface was carefully considered in releasing Mammy –
“The archive collection makes it possible for us to release a film like this in a historical context as opposed to someone just innocently putting the movie on a shelf in a store not knowing what it is and running the risk of being viewed out of context.”
Modern day reviewers agreed despite the difficult issue of blackface, Al Jolson’s performance was the highlight of an otherwise tepid film. New York Times film critic Dave Kehr noted that Al Jolson was “Simultaneously one of the most significant and most embarrassing show business figures of the 20th century…” and “What once seemed progressive a way of introducing African-American music to a wider public now seems anything but.” Kehr enjoyed the restored Technicolor sequences, stating they “have a bright, busy, carnavalesque look appropriate for numbers like “Yes, We Have No Bananas” and the ribald “Night Boat to Albany.””
Reviewer Glenn Erickson felt that Mammy was one of Al Jolson’s “better musical vehicles” and stated that the film “was clearly intended as a nostalgic return to an earlier era of show business still familiar to the 1930 audience.” Erickson enjoyed the DVD, and stated that despite the limitations of the color restoration, “delivers a very clean transfer of this eighty year-old show.”
Film historian John Howard Reid reported that “the archives did a remarkably good job” with the restoration, but felt that the “Overture" was lacking in its sound. Reid berated the flimsy plot, but noted Al Jolson’s work - “Even at his worst… Jolson is still almost the best thing about Mammy…” Reid also had high praise for Louise Dresser, stating she outshone Jolson, and despite “her rather small” role… you’ll never forget her.” Reid concluded, “Just sit back and enjoy all the standard Irving Berlin minstrelsy.”
I found Mammy tedious and painful to watch. A trite plot, with unlikeable people performing in blackface, and a whimpering sap of a leading lady (Lois Moran, who appeared in the now lost 1929 musicals Words and Music and A Song of Kentucky).
After a 7-minute overture, the opening scene shows a parade taking place in the pouring rain.
Al Jolson sings “I’m Happy” in a torrential downpour and reminisces about “cotton fields and Mammy’s arms.”
The majority of the next 20 minutes are devoted to Meadow’s Merry Minstrels, headlined by the “golden voiced” Al Fuller. The show is intertwined with brief scenes letting the cinematic audience know the show is in financial trouble.
The cinematography of the minstrel show is well done. “Here We Are” is a full company minstrel number, complete with tambourines and banjos. The Technicolor number is cleverly filmed, alternating between the house right box of the theatre, front on midshots and close-ups of the actors, wide shots that allow the film audience to see the full stage picture, and also shots from the wings give a behind-the-scenes feel. The Technicolor unfortunately makes the blackface all the more glaring.
After much hamming and stuttering from Al, it turns out the villainous sheriff longs to be in show business and saves the show by becoming a producer. The show tours successfully, and Al’s Mama is sad that Al keeps leaving. Al embraces Mama and kisses her on the lips before jumping on the next train.
Meanwhile, token-girl-in-the-show Nora is unhappy because her crush Westy is a flirtatious fop who has eyes for every pretty girl but her. Al tries to make Westy jealous by proposing to Nora, but it backfires and everyone thinks they’re engaged for real.
Al sings “Looking at You,” a sweet ballad, sung in the context of a rehearsal. Al is framed by the male ensemble, which is an effective bit of staging and camera work. Nora simpers in the wings.
Al gets drunk and sings an up-tempo reprise of “Looking at You” while sitting at the piano before hopping up for a quick tap dance.
Unaware his gun has been loaded for real, Al shoots Westy on stage during their “comedic” bit.
Evading the police, Al hops the “Night Train to Albany” and returns home to his Mama to tell her he has to “go to Europe for three years.” Al sits at the piano and sings to Mama – “I’m Everything to my Mammy.” Louise Dresser barely gets to speak, and looks like she is acting in a silent film. Al kisses her on the lips multiple times, which feels incredibly awkward.
Al returns to the scene of the crime to face the music. Hank has confessed to the shooting, and Al is a free man once again. The final number, a reprise of “I’m Happy” features another parade, this time in Technicolor. The parade includes a shot of a smiling Black Mammy in the crowd. The film ends with Al singing, “Just let me sing and I’m happy!”
While the sappy plot, Al kissing his mother on the lips repeatedly, and Blackface minstrel numbers were painful to watch, researching the film was a lot of fun, and reminds me why I started this insane project in the first place.
It was fascinating to dive into the career of the aforementioned director Michael Curtiz who worked in film from the silent era at the turn of the 20th century through to Hollywood’s Golden Age in the 1960s. Curtiz directed over 170 films in a variety of genres, and is credited with discovering Erroll Flynn and Doris Day. His extensive film credits include the movie musicals Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), This is the Army (1943), Night and Day (1946), Romance on the High Seas (1948), Young Man with a Horn (1950), The Jazz Singer (1952), and White Christmas (1954). I feel it’s important to also mention he directed the film classic Casablanca (1942). You can see glimmers of his future potential in Mammy, but I’m looking forward to getting to his later work.
IMDb lists Orry-Kelly as the (uncredited) costume designer. Given that Orry Kelly was busy designing stage shows in New York between 1927 and 1930, and didn’t join Warner Bros until 1932, it’s doubtful the listing is correct. Despite this, I had so much fun learning about this incredible Australian who left his hometown of Kiama to pursue a creative life in the United States. Orry George Kelly, whose name was hyphenated to Orry-Kelly to make him sound French, worked on over 300 films, won 3 Oscars for Costume Design (An American In Paris (1952), Les Girls (1958), and Some Like it Hot (1960)) and was famous for creating iconic looks for Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Rosalind Russell, and Shirley Maclaine. Gillian Armstrong directed a brilliant documentary about Orry Kelly, Women He’s Undressed, which was released in 2015 and is now available to stream. A short but informative biography by Robert Parkinson, Orry Kelly: Miss Weston’s Protege - The Story of a Great Hollywood Costume Designer was also released in 2015, though is already surprisingly difficult to come by.
On to the next!
SOURCES
Books
Articles
Websites
Other
Books
- John Howard Reid, Silent Movies Plus! More Silent Films and Early Talkies on DVD, Reid Books (2015)
- Alan K. Rode, Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film, University Press of Kentucky (2017)
- Robert Parkinson, Orry Kelly: Miss Weston’s Protege - The Story of a Great Hollywood Costume Designer, Impact Press (2015)
Articles
- Robert M. Coates, “More Minstrels and Mr. Jolson’s Mammy,” The New Yorker (March 29, 1930), p.11
- Cornelia Emerson, “Summer Program: Festivsal of Preservation,” UCLA Film and Television Archive Newsletter (April/May 2002)
- Glenn Erickson, “Mammy: Restored and Remastered Edition: Warner Archive Collection,” DVDTalk (April 11, 2010)
- Dave Kehr, “Lessons in 20th-Century History,” New York Times (April 16, 2010),
- John Kenrick, “Al Jolson Biography - Part III,” Musicals 101 (2004)
- Susan King, “Rare Al Jolson movie ‘Mammy’ now on DVD,” Los Angeles Times (April 6, 2010)
- Norbert Lusk, “The Screen in Review: A Minstrel’s Mammy,” Picture Play Magazine (July 1930), p.72
- Seth W. Mattingly, Jr., “Stage and Screen: Al Jolson’s “Mammy” In Second Week at Grand,” The Ohio State Lantern (June 9, 1930) p.2
- Uncredited, “Critical Comment on Current Films: Mammy,” Screenland (July 1930), p.87
- Uncredited, “Film Reviews: Mammy,” Variety (April 2, 1930), p.19
- Uncredited, “Hollywood Star Walk: Michael Curtiz,” Los Angeles Times (April 12, 1962)
- Uncredited, “Michael Curtiz, film director, dies,” Los Angeles Times (April 12, 1962), p.1
- Print Ad, Variety, (April 9, 1930), p.13
Websites
- AFI, “Mammy (1930),” Accessed via: https://catalog.afi.com/Film/10535-MAMMY?sid=7a850fea-71c2-4cea-830c-337db6cae5c1&sr=11.621535&cp=1&pos=0
- IMDb, “Michael Curtiz,” Accessed via: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002031/?ref_=ttfc_fcr_1_1
Other
- Dir. Gillian Armstrong, Women He’s Undressed, Damien Parer Productions (2015)
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