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The first film on the AFI’s list is My Man, starring Fanny Brice, Unfortunately, My Man does not seem to be available, and may be one of the treasure trove of early sound films now lost to the world. Our next film does however follow on nicely from The Jazz Singer.
While the first commercially successful talkie, The Jazz Singer, was undoubtedly a hit, it did not eclipse the successes of the silent film, and the skeptics openly wondered if the talking picture business would ever catch on. Within a year, Warner Bros would release their second talking picture. Enter The Singing Fool. The film was written as a star vehicle for the already immensely popular Al Jolson who, to quote Peter Lehman from his book Close Viewings: An Anthology of New Film Criticism, “was more than just a singer or an actor - he was an experience.” Like it’s predecessor, The Singing Fool, provided a medium in which to introduce an eager public to new songs, including “I’m Sitting on top of the World,” “Rainbow on my shoulder,” and “Sonny Boy.” In short, audiences LOVED it. Within a month of opening, the film had broken over 70 box office records across the United States, and it remained Hollywood’s most financially successful film until Gone with the Wind premiered in 1939.
Finances aside, The Singing Fool is a great piece of cinema. From the outset, it feels more sophisticated than its predecessor The Jazz Singer. Although the film still employs silent film devices, the majority of The Singing Fool makes use of Vitaphone synchronised sound. According to Lehman, this combination was a conscious decision to keep regular movie goers happy, as well as to attract new patrons, however I feel this more reflects the growing confidence of the studio, and creatives, in utilising the new sound technology.
The camera becomes the story-teller, using images to showing the story rather than telling it through title cards. The score also helps to tell the story, with less dirge-like filler music. A great example of this occurs in the opening scenes, where the music shifts from traditional swirling orchestral accompaniment to a lively quick-step tune which follows four well-dressed punters climbing the stairs to Blackie Joe’s club, focusing on two female pairs of stockinged legs and shiny shoes. We get a sense of the excitement of going to Blackie Joe’s, and the glamour and fun of the entertainment industry, which is of course shown in all its harsh reality by the end of the film.
Despite the occasional tendency to sentimentality, there is a wonderful sense of comedy throughout The Singing Fool that has not been lost to time. The cheating and womanising characters at Blackie Joe’s, the woman who cries profusely during Al Stone’s first number, and the inebriated couple in the phone booth on New Year’s Eve are just a few examples of light-hearted humour. This comedy does well to contrast the tragedy of the story.
Most of the songs are set as performance pieces, however, they also tell us what the main character, namely Al Stone, (played by Jolson), is thinking. Al sings “It All Depends on You” in an attempt to woo the mean Molly, his long-time heart’s devotion. Through song, Al tells us that it is Molly who will determine his happiness. Without realising, Al’s own lyrics forbode the unhappiness that she will cause him. Moments later, inspired by Molly’s positive reaction to the song, Al sings “I’m Sitting on top of the world”. He is so happy, that only song can truly convey how he is feeling. Cut to a few year’s later, married and with a young child, Al sings “Rainbow Around my shoulder”. The uptempo song demonstrates to the audience that Al is really very happy! The main song of the film, “Sonny Boy” is performed several times. A few times as gentle personal quiet moments between father and son, and in the last instance in an emotional performance to a packed house of eager fans. Al's young son, Sonny Boy, played by the utterly adorable Davey Lee, is a real highlight of the film, with his sweet angelic face, and spot on timing.
The characters are well developed. From the outset we see Al Stone is a good guy. He is funny and likable, and his quirky entrance, framed by a line of chorus girls, reinforces the audience anticipation and satisfaction of seeing their favourite star on the screen. The audience’s appreciation of Al is mirrored in the pretty cigarette girl, kind, softly-spoken, and like her name, full of grace. Molly, Al’s love interest, is vain and superficial. She is only interested in appearances, and moving up in the world, highlighted by our first glimpses of Molly being her legs in the dressing room mirror. We gain further insight into Molly’s aims through the great line, “I’m not interested in waiters, except when they’re serving me”. We instantly dislike Molly, a feeling heightened by her philandering ways behind the back of our spirited Al, and her final moments with Al are touching and vindicating.
As Peter Lehman has written, “song, the star, a gripping story and the attraction of sound, all enveloped within a continuous narrative form so familiar to movie fans made The Singing Fool the biggest attraction of its day”. These elements help to ensure that The Singing Fool remains a brilliant film today.
While the first commercially successful talkie, The Jazz Singer, was undoubtedly a hit, it did not eclipse the successes of the silent film, and the skeptics openly wondered if the talking picture business would ever catch on. Within a year, Warner Bros would release their second talking picture. Enter The Singing Fool. The film was written as a star vehicle for the already immensely popular Al Jolson who, to quote Peter Lehman from his book Close Viewings: An Anthology of New Film Criticism, “was more than just a singer or an actor - he was an experience.” Like it’s predecessor, The Singing Fool, provided a medium in which to introduce an eager public to new songs, including “I’m Sitting on top of the World,” “Rainbow on my shoulder,” and “Sonny Boy.” In short, audiences LOVED it. Within a month of opening, the film had broken over 70 box office records across the United States, and it remained Hollywood’s most financially successful film until Gone with the Wind premiered in 1939.
Finances aside, The Singing Fool is a great piece of cinema. From the outset, it feels more sophisticated than its predecessor The Jazz Singer. Although the film still employs silent film devices, the majority of The Singing Fool makes use of Vitaphone synchronised sound. According to Lehman, this combination was a conscious decision to keep regular movie goers happy, as well as to attract new patrons, however I feel this more reflects the growing confidence of the studio, and creatives, in utilising the new sound technology.
The camera becomes the story-teller, using images to showing the story rather than telling it through title cards. The score also helps to tell the story, with less dirge-like filler music. A great example of this occurs in the opening scenes, where the music shifts from traditional swirling orchestral accompaniment to a lively quick-step tune which follows four well-dressed punters climbing the stairs to Blackie Joe’s club, focusing on two female pairs of stockinged legs and shiny shoes. We get a sense of the excitement of going to Blackie Joe’s, and the glamour and fun of the entertainment industry, which is of course shown in all its harsh reality by the end of the film.
Despite the occasional tendency to sentimentality, there is a wonderful sense of comedy throughout The Singing Fool that has not been lost to time. The cheating and womanising characters at Blackie Joe’s, the woman who cries profusely during Al Stone’s first number, and the inebriated couple in the phone booth on New Year’s Eve are just a few examples of light-hearted humour. This comedy does well to contrast the tragedy of the story.
Most of the songs are set as performance pieces, however, they also tell us what the main character, namely Al Stone, (played by Jolson), is thinking. Al sings “It All Depends on You” in an attempt to woo the mean Molly, his long-time heart’s devotion. Through song, Al tells us that it is Molly who will determine his happiness. Without realising, Al’s own lyrics forbode the unhappiness that she will cause him. Moments later, inspired by Molly’s positive reaction to the song, Al sings “I’m Sitting on top of the world”. He is so happy, that only song can truly convey how he is feeling. Cut to a few year’s later, married and with a young child, Al sings “Rainbow Around my shoulder”. The uptempo song demonstrates to the audience that Al is really very happy! The main song of the film, “Sonny Boy” is performed several times. A few times as gentle personal quiet moments between father and son, and in the last instance in an emotional performance to a packed house of eager fans. Al's young son, Sonny Boy, played by the utterly adorable Davey Lee, is a real highlight of the film, with his sweet angelic face, and spot on timing.
The characters are well developed. From the outset we see Al Stone is a good guy. He is funny and likable, and his quirky entrance, framed by a line of chorus girls, reinforces the audience anticipation and satisfaction of seeing their favourite star on the screen. The audience’s appreciation of Al is mirrored in the pretty cigarette girl, kind, softly-spoken, and like her name, full of grace. Molly, Al’s love interest, is vain and superficial. She is only interested in appearances, and moving up in the world, highlighted by our first glimpses of Molly being her legs in the dressing room mirror. We gain further insight into Molly’s aims through the great line, “I’m not interested in waiters, except when they’re serving me”. We instantly dislike Molly, a feeling heightened by her philandering ways behind the back of our spirited Al, and her final moments with Al are touching and vindicating.
As Peter Lehman has written, “song, the star, a gripping story and the attraction of sound, all enveloped within a continuous narrative form so familiar to movie fans made The Singing Fool the biggest attraction of its day”. These elements help to ensure that The Singing Fool remains a brilliant film today.
- Published on
In the immortal words of Julie Andrews (whom we shall come to later on in this project), when one is unsure of how to proceed, you must start at the very beginning. And so, it is interesting to remember that until the advent of the Vitaphone system in the early twentieth century, movies were silent. Sure music may have been playing in the background (or very often, provided by a live pianist in the cinema), but there were no sound effects, no speaking actors let alone singing ones, and no soundtracks that exactly matched the visuals - sound and image were not synchronised. It is entirely bizarre to think of a movie musical without synchronised sound, and so our first film off the rank is not actually on the American Film Institute list of movie musicals, or the Internet Movie Database's list of Earliest Musicals. Our first film is the first commercially successful movie length “talkie”.
In 1927, “talking pictures” were considered a novelty, a gimmick that probably wouldn’t last the world of commercial mass entertainment. The inventors of the talking picture (notably Thomas Edison, Western Electric, and D W Griffiths) had been peddling the notion for almost twenty years, and every single Hollywood studio had rejected the idea as folly. That was until Sam Warner, of the newly formed Warner Brothers Studios, came along. When it came to the concept of talking pictures, Sam Warner liked what he saw, and heard. In an effort to make the “gimmick” work, Warner took a highly successful and popular Broadway play about the son of a Jewish cantor who runs away from home to pursue a life in the theatre, and turned it into a film script, and cast a very popular and widely known Broadway star by the name of Al Jolson in the lead. “The Jazz Singer” went on to become a resounding success.
Despite being famous as the first commercially successful talkie, there is surprisingly little talking throughout the film. The Vitaphone system, where two separate discs are used for sound and image, was by all accounts a “clunky” system, and this is evident in the disjointed use of sound throughout the film. Most scenes are carried out in the traditional style of the silent film, and as a modern day viewer I found these scenes difficult to watch. The film makes use of a wide variety of musical styles, including traditional Jewish religious songs, classical music, and contemporary popular songs, a conscious choice by the film makers to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Synchronised sound is solely used during the musical numbers, which only appear as performances (on stage or in religious ceremony) within the story. Most of the music is slow and dirge-like, and the synchronised contemporary popular music sung by Al Jolson is a welcome break.
This is particularly true of the infamous number “Blue Skies,” about half-way into the film. Jackie (Al Jolson), sits at the piano and singing for his mother, (Eugenie Besserer). Al Jolson is a lovely performer to watch. He is confident and at ease, and his jazzed up version of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” is as engaging to the viewing audience as it is for his mother in the room. Besserer gives a heart-breakingly beautiful performance, although it is amusing to watch her acting style completely change throughout the scene as she is required to rely on her voice and not just her facial expressions! The number is interrupted by Jackie’s father, the cantor, (Warner Oland) yelling a definitive “Stop!” abruptly ending the intimate and naturalistic scene. This small five minute scene was the talk of the town for critics and audiences alike, and gives us our first proper taste of synchronised dialogue and singing, and in the context of the silent film, it is thrilling.
Throughout the song and dance numbers actors are predominantly filmed from the waist up, and occasionally with legs in view (particularly if they are female), but rarely with full body, head-to-toe, in full view. Jolson's dancing, standing on the spot and swinging his hips, may not seem much today, but according to Ron Hutchison (founder of The Vitaphone Project), this dancing would have been “outrageous” at the time. We are given a glimpse of Broadway-style chorus numbers of the era, plenty of young pretty ladies in short skirts and shorts, standing in lines and kicking vigorously. The dancing is certainly a very tame start to the musical showstoppers that are to come in later films!
In terms of plot, filmic devices, song and dance numbers, “The Jazz Singer” is not the most amazing film ever made. However, when we view it in its original context, as the first film to successfully integrate the use of synchronised sound, it is groundbreaking and revolutionary. In Al Jolson's own words, “We ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”
Despite being famous as the first commercially successful talkie, there is surprisingly little talking throughout the film. The Vitaphone system, where two separate discs are used for sound and image, was by all accounts a “clunky” system, and this is evident in the disjointed use of sound throughout the film. Most scenes are carried out in the traditional style of the silent film, and as a modern day viewer I found these scenes difficult to watch. The film makes use of a wide variety of musical styles, including traditional Jewish religious songs, classical music, and contemporary popular songs, a conscious choice by the film makers to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Synchronised sound is solely used during the musical numbers, which only appear as performances (on stage or in religious ceremony) within the story. Most of the music is slow and dirge-like, and the synchronised contemporary popular music sung by Al Jolson is a welcome break.
This is particularly true of the infamous number “Blue Skies,” about half-way into the film. Jackie (Al Jolson), sits at the piano and singing for his mother, (Eugenie Besserer). Al Jolson is a lovely performer to watch. He is confident and at ease, and his jazzed up version of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” is as engaging to the viewing audience as it is for his mother in the room. Besserer gives a heart-breakingly beautiful performance, although it is amusing to watch her acting style completely change throughout the scene as she is required to rely on her voice and not just her facial expressions! The number is interrupted by Jackie’s father, the cantor, (Warner Oland) yelling a definitive “Stop!” abruptly ending the intimate and naturalistic scene. This small five minute scene was the talk of the town for critics and audiences alike, and gives us our first proper taste of synchronised dialogue and singing, and in the context of the silent film, it is thrilling.
Throughout the song and dance numbers actors are predominantly filmed from the waist up, and occasionally with legs in view (particularly if they are female), but rarely with full body, head-to-toe, in full view. Jolson's dancing, standing on the spot and swinging his hips, may not seem much today, but according to Ron Hutchison (founder of The Vitaphone Project), this dancing would have been “outrageous” at the time. We are given a glimpse of Broadway-style chorus numbers of the era, plenty of young pretty ladies in short skirts and shorts, standing in lines and kicking vigorously. The dancing is certainly a very tame start to the musical showstoppers that are to come in later films!
In terms of plot, filmic devices, song and dance numbers, “The Jazz Singer” is not the most amazing film ever made. However, when we view it in its original context, as the first film to successfully integrate the use of synchronised sound, it is groundbreaking and revolutionary. In Al Jolson's own words, “We ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”
- Published on
There is no time in my living memory when I haven't seen The Sound of Music, or Mary Poppins, or My Fair Lady, or The Pajama Game, or Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story, or every single Disney cartoon since 1988. They have always just been there, like old friends whom no matter how many times I revisit them, still retain the same technicolour, all singing, all dancing, magical charm as when I was a seven year old sitting watching Abuela's video tapes, rewinding them, and watching them again and again and again.
So imagine my surprise as a grown up that there are musical movies outside the 20 or so I have watched religiously since forever. In fact, a couple of years ago the American Film Institute (AFI) released a list of the best 25 Movie Musicals of all time (well, since the advent of such a category anyway). I had a look at the "shortlist" of nominated 200 films and was staggered to realise just how many films I hadn't seen. There is a rich history to movie musicals that I had not even begun to scrape the surface of.
So began the idea for a project. For the next however long it takes me, I am going to watch my way through the history of movie musicals. I will watch as best as I can in chronological order, read about the history of each film, and blog about it. My list, over 800 films in total, is predominantly based on films catalogued by the AFI in the categories of movie musical and musical comedy, and any other extras I can pick up along the way. Here goes!
So imagine my surprise as a grown up that there are musical movies outside the 20 or so I have watched religiously since forever. In fact, a couple of years ago the American Film Institute (AFI) released a list of the best 25 Movie Musicals of all time (well, since the advent of such a category anyway). I had a look at the "shortlist" of nominated 200 films and was staggered to realise just how many films I hadn't seen. There is a rich history to movie musicals that I had not even begun to scrape the surface of.
So began the idea for a project. For the next however long it takes me, I am going to watch my way through the history of movie musicals. I will watch as best as I can in chronological order, read about the history of each film, and blog about it. My list, over 800 films in total, is predominantly based on films catalogued by the AFI in the categories of movie musical and musical comedy, and any other extras I can pick up along the way. Here goes!