The Singing Fool (1928)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

C. Graham Baker (adaptation)
C. Graham Baker (story)

Release Date:

17 August 1929 (Denmark)

Genre:

Musical | Drama

Tagline:

"When there are gray skies, I don't mind the gray skies, you make them blue---Sonny Boy."

Plot Keywords:

Stage Performance | New York | Divorce | Musical Number | California

Cast

Al Jolson	...	Al Stone
Betty Bronson	...	Grace
Josephine Dunn	...	Molly Winton
Arthur Housman	...	Blackie Joe
Reed Howes	...	John Perry
Davey Lee	...	Sonny Boy
Edward Martindel	...	Louis Marcus
Robert Emmett O'Connor	...	Cafe Owner, Bill (as Robert O'Connor)
Helen Lynch	...	Maid
Agnes Franey	...	'Balloon' Girl
The Yacht Club Boys	...	Singing quartet

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Vitaphone)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

A smash hit grossing over $4 million, it was the most successful film in Warner Brothers history calculated at the completion of its initial release.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Jazz Fool (1929)

Soundtrack:

Laugh, Clown, Laugh

Classic Jolson at his best

The movie is obviously designed as a Jolson vehicle. It is pretty obvious that the star came first, and everything else followed.

Despite being made in 1928, the film holds up remarkably well today, the humour being one aspect that hasn't dated. Jolson sings Sonny Boy to great effect three times, although he puts so much emotion into it that I was left wanting him to sing is straight just once. The film may seem oversentimental but if you engage with this and look at it from the point of view of a contemporary audience you will enjoy it more, and the film's shock ending is, in my opinion one of the bravest I have seen Hollywood do. In fact the only shock endings which I think compare with this are Terry Gilliam's Brazil or Doctor Who: Earthshock.

The supporting performances are sterling, but there's no other actor who has the Charisma of Jolson. It's apparent to me that nowadays, the film's leading lady, Josephine Dunn, playing a singer, would have been given one or two songs to sing, but the producers rightly realised that the audience was there to see Jolson and Jolson alone.

The film is also of historical interest, being one of the first talkies. It's apparent that synchronised sound is used sparingly, and, like its near-contemporary The Jazz Singer, the opening parts use caption slides in place of speech.

Enjoy it for its Jazz age settings, the grand costumes (Miss Dunn's gowns are particularly exquisite) and of course for Jolson's singing.