Note the ad above, promising the Al Jolson of THE JAZZ SINGER/’27 and THE SINGING FOOL/’28 before two subsequent flops had left Warners with ‘a Jolson problem’ on their hands. And this only his fifth pic. Reuniting Jolie with Alan Crosland, who megged his Jazz Singing debut, seemed a safe bet. And, as extra insurance, they adapted a stage-tested hit, one where Jolie didn’t just ‘black up’ for a few ‘Numbos,’ but played Black all the way thru. No theatrical minstrelsy, but a more-or-less actual Black characterization, a Negro horse jockey who saves the day for the nice white folk he works for. (Until the encore, when Jolson appears sans make-up, threatening to sing ‘Sonny Boy.’) Alas, director Crosland had lost touch with the fast-moving advances in Talkie technique, what passed muster in ‘27 now looked antique. And the show, an old-fashioned wheeze in ‘25, was now positively arthritic. From today’s perspective, it seems a desperate move. Don’t kid yourself, it was pretty desperate in 1930, too. Jolson was off the screen for three years before returning at another studio.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Oddly, the best thing here is a flashback where Jolie plays his own G’pa back in plantation days. Instead of the weak original songs he gets in the modern story, he sings a couple of spirituals backed by a chorus of black singers, real African-American people. Darn if he isn’t good. Especially when he plumbs his unexpected lower extension while lightly swinging the rhythm. Even in our post-ironic cultural milieu, where sophisticates collect pickaninny artifacts, what are we to make of this scene?
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