MAMMY (1930)

Looking for a course correction after Al Jolson’s third film (SAY IT WITH SONGS/’29) made less then half his second (THE SINGING FOOL/’28), Warner Brothers lined up Irving Berlin (story & songs), Michael Curtiz as director, and two-strip TechniColor for the big BlackFace Minstrel production ‘numbo’ & finale.  It barely staunched the descent, and Jolson’s next, BIG BOY/’30, with Al trying on a realistic Black characterization put him off the screen for three years.  Here Jolie, playing top-comic Sideman in the Minstrel show, is set up to fire a prop gun that’s been loaded with a ‘live’ bullet at his romantic rival.  (The one timely touch in the pic!)  Curtiz, at least, keeps things moving while Berlin comes thru with a hit tune (‘Let Me Sing and I’m Happy’).  Elsewise, the ususal melodramatic drek with Jolson pining for Lois Moran, girlfriend of Lowell Sherman’s interlocutor, but largely laying on the songs & kisses for dear old mom (Louise Dresser).  And now that most of the TechniColor footage has been found and restored, we get to see BlackFace with a slight greenish tinge to it.  As if BlackFace weren’t cringey enough already.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned above, Jolson plays what’s meant to be seen as an actual Black person, not a BlackFace stage caricature, later this year in BIG BOY.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/04/big-boy-1930.html 

Then, after a break, returning to Warners for WONDER BAR which manages to be both his best and his worst.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/01/wonder-bar-1933.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: No outlier, but America’s most popular entertainment for over a century, BlackFace Minstrel Shows are all but impossible for modern audiences to understand . . . and downright dangerous to hide or ignore.  Discuss.