DVD : The Jazz Singer (Three-Disc Deluxe Edition)
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0012569798892
Format: NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 16, 2007
Running Time: 89 minutes
Sales Rank: 3208
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: October 06, 1927
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A cantors son gets into show business much to the anger & disappointment of his family. Well-known for being the first talkie. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/16/2007 Starring: Al Jolson Warner Oland Rating: Nr
Amazon.com:
It's one of the most famous titles in film history, and everybody knows why: in a handful of sequences in The Jazz Singer, sound and image are excitingly synchronized. By 1927, some short subjects had already been "talkies," and a few features had synchronized music, but The Jazz Singer gets the prize as the breakthrough. Because the film is largely without dialogue, you can--even watching the film today--almost palpably sense the shift in movie epochs, as cinema takes an evolutionary leap from one form to the next. The movie itself, based on a successful Broadway show by Samson Raphaelson, is strictly melodrama of an ancient kind. Young Jakie Rabinowitz is expected to follow in the long line of family Cantors, but his heart yearns to sing "Toot Toot, Tootsie" instead of "Kol Nidre." Al Jolson plays Jakie (later Jack Robin of footlights fame), and you get a taste of why he was widely considered the greatest entertainer of his time; watch him with a tearjerker such as "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face" and you'll see the skillful, completely irony-free manipulations of a master storyteller. Equally fun is Jolson's non-singing patter--in fact, this is where you get the thrill of talking pictures, more so than the songs. "You ain't heard nuthin' yet," he burbles, and it's hard not to catch the excitement.
Jolson's numbers include his blackface act, a longstanding tradition of minstrel shows and music halls, and an unavoidable source of awkwardness for later viewers (see The Savages for an amusing account of the embarrassment this can cause). Blackface is a bizarre show business reality, and it's part of the movie, so some historical context is required.
Warner Bros. rightly considers The Jazz Singer a key moment in the studio's history, and this three-disc DVD package gives the deluxe treatment. The film itself is beautifully restored, and reproductions of original supporting materials (souvenir program, stills, ads) are fun. A booklet on early Vitaphone shorts clearly predates The Jazz Singer, for Jolson is mentioned only as a star of Vitaphone shorts, and George Jessel is tabbed as the future star of The Jazz Singer (he'd played Jakie on Broadway). A 90-minute documentary gives a fine account of how the Vitaphone system worked, and how other systems actually became the industry standard.
Supplemental short films are a true treasure trove. A Plantation Act is more Jolson blackface, Hollywood Handicap a studio short comedy directed by Buster Keaton, and I Love to Singa a hilarious 1936 Tex Avery cartoon--a spoof of The Jazz Singer starring a bird named Owl Jolson. A flabbergasting collection of Vitagraph shorts--over four hours' worth--makes up disc 3 of this set: utterly weird and wonderful performances by some of the strangest acts ever to kill vaudeville. There are a few names here: George Burns and Gracie Allen in a short called Lambchops, the Foy Family doing wacky stage business. But the cornball timed jokes of Shaw & Lee, the saucy songs of Trixie Friganza, not to mention "The Wizard of the Mandolin," Bernardo De Pace--these are gems, folks. Anyone with a taste for showbiz past will love them. --Robert Horton
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
The disc of shorts is worth the price alone. But with the booklet and wonderful restored film and commentaries, just a great package.
Rating:  -
The movie "The jazz Singer" would have been forgotten long ago had it not
been the first film to be released with some dialogue and songs. Don't
order the this for the film, order instead for the 3rd disc which is a
true gem. Vitaphone which was a subsidary of Warner Brothers filmed and
released short subjects of popular dance bands, singers and vaudeville
acts. The third disc contains about three and a half hours of beautifully
restored vitaphone short subjects. ... Read More
Rating:  -
Why is it worth buying this set of dvd's if you already have "the Jazz singer " which has been released numerous times? Just for the vitaphone shorts, the reason I bought it. These shorts alone are worth the cost of the set. If you want to see what vaudeville was really like this is the set for you. Some of the names you won't recognize, for obvious reasons but this is what was entertainment back then. I remember my father telling me about Van and Schenck and now I know what he was talking about. Van ... Read More
Rating: -
Very timely delivery and the product was exactly as described. Very responsive vendor. The DVD is a must for anyone interested in Jolson. Mostly silent (with subtitles) except for the music.
Rating: -
I BELIEVE THIS IS ONE OF THE VERY BEST BOX SETS PRODUCED BY ANY AMERICAN FILM COMPANY. I SUGGEST WARNER BROS TO PRODUCE MORE OF THESE SETS OFFERING US, ALL THE MOVIE MUSICALS OF THE EARLY THIRTIES PROCEEDING AS THEY HAVE DONE WITH THIS EXTRAORDINARILY MARVELLOUS "JAZZ SINGER".
PLEASE WARNER BROS LISTEN TO ME AND MAKE MY DREAM COME TRUE. THANKS!
Ernesto Oppicelli
Via Certosa 1 a - 3
16159 Genova Certosa - Italy
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