Great!

When I show this video to some of my budding filmmaker buddies, many call it "old...corny." For God's sake, of course it's old. It was filmed in l927. That's almost 75 years ago. Frankly, I fell in love with The Jazz Singer since I first caught it on television decades ago. The musical score is uncredited (I don't mean the Irving Berlin songs sung by Jolson) but the accompaniment and is powerful. The violins and woodwinds keep the pace moving swiftly. I love studying the manners and styles of that era--May McAvoy in her Jazz Age suits and stage costumes. How people in clubs and restaurants would use drum sticks to bang the tables when they liked something; the wise cracks. A great scene is when Al Jolson has returned to visit his mother, Eugenie Besserer. After singing to her, his stubborn old jackass of a father, a rabbi, comes, here's the music and screams: "Get out! You--you Jazz Singer!" This is like watching a time machine, which captured these figures and music on film nearly 75 years ago. I love old movies that can get schmaltzy and tear-jerking. Call me old-fashioned but this l927 landmark movie is one I watch at last once a month.

There are many reasons to love Jolson's "The Jazz Singer"

This is an extraordinary film.

First, it is a great story of the dilemma faced by a son between following a path set by his family and culture, in contrast with pursuing his own career ambitions.

This is a story with great relevance today.

Second, it is the first "talking picture." As a piece of cinema history, it is a missing link between silent and talking pictures.

The Jazz Singer is conceived and photographed as a silent picture, and follows all silent picture conventions, but has several synchronized sound segments - with performances by the great Al Jolson - worked in.

The most memorable to me is the scene with Jolson talking to his mother, with Jolson sitting at the piano.

Third, Al Jolson was the most popular superstar of his day; he is compared in popularity to Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Bing Crosby combined at their peaks. In a world before radio, television, and sound pictures, the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway in NYC was built for Jolson and he filled it for years.

Finally, "The Jazz Singer" is an historical document looking at New York in the 1920's. That world is long long gone. The sets, the costumes, the types of the actors, all reflect a rich and interesting world that no longer exists.

Don't look at "The Jazz Singer" as some historical oddity or museum piece. As a piece of entertainment, culture and history, it is very powerful and riveting.

As far as I am concerned, it is highly recommended.

Highly moving film

What lady watching could keep a dry eye at the end when Jack Robin sings Mammy with his own mother proudly watching in the audience? Absolutely moving. The film was not the first part talkie to come outa Hollywood but it was the most successful. And the story rather closely parallels Jolson's real life family story. He was the son of a cantor, the two were originally from Lithuania and Jolson ran away from his dad when he was just a boy.