The Singing Fool **** (1927, Al Jolson, Betty Bronson, Josephine Dunn) – Classic Movie Review 10,724

‘Come! Through Vitaphone hear the greatest living entertainer, Al Jolson score a triumph that will make you tingle with smiles and tears!’

Director Lloyd Bacon’s 1927 Vitaphone/ Warner Bros black and white blockbuster musical drama The Singing Fool is Al Jolson’s big hit follow-up to the historic ‘first talkie’ The Jazz Singer, in which he plays Al Stone, a singing waiter-songsmith at Blackie Joe’s speakeasy, who goes downhill terribly when he is cheated on by his cold-hearted speakeasy singing star wife Molly (Josephine Dunn) with Al’s friend John Perry (Reed Howes), but the speakeasy’s petite cigarette saleswoman Grace (Betty Bronson) helps him get back on his feet.

There are barrel-loads of treacle in the highly sentimental, tearful script, but Jolson’s bouncy personality and bravura singing are easily able to keep this early-talkie antique going strong. He sings the all-time-great song ‘Sonny Boy’ (music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Buddy G DeSylva, Lew Brown and Al Jolson) to his dying little three-year-old son he calls Sonny Boy (Davey Lee). It sold three million copies – the first record to sell over a million.

Jolson also sings the memorable songs There’s a Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder, Golden Gate, I’m Sitting on Top of the World, It All Depends on You, and Keep Smiling at Trouble.

It is written by C Graham Baker (story and adaptation) and Joseph Jackson (dialogue) (titles).

Also in the supporting cast are Robert Emmett O’Connor as café owner Bill Cline, Arthur Housman, Edward Martindell, Helen Lynch, Agnes Franey, and The Yacht Club Boys.

It was released in a sound version and a silent version. The sound version had its New York City premiere on 19 September 1928 and the silent version was released in the US on 1 January 1929.

A smash hit grossing a total of around $24 million US and worldwide, it was the top-grossing film of 1928 and Warner Bros’ most successful film till then.

Jolson’s song ‘The Spaniard That Blighted My Life’, written by Billy Merson, was recorded for the film but cut from the final print and no longer exists in any known print. The number was cut after Merson sued Warner Bros, alleging Jolson’s version impinged on his livelihood as he was still performing the song in the UK. Only the Vitaphone disc of the song is known to survive and it is on the soundtrack album.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,724

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