Le fou chantant

The Singing Fool" is relatively unknown compared to the previous year's "The Jazz Singer", probably because it was the first feature film with synchronized dialogue. However, 1928's "The Singing Fool" is important for a number of reasons. For one, it was the first talking picture many people ever saw. Remember that in order to exhibit a talking picture special equipment had to be installed in the theater, and theater owners weren't sure enough of the future success of talking pictures to invest in that equipment until well after "The Jazz Singer" came and went. Also, "The Singing Fool" was the top box office draw of 1928. In fact, with the Great Depression just over the horizon, no film made more money until "Gone with the Wind" in 1939. Finally it is one of the very few talking pictures that survive from the year 1928 due to the ease of breakage of the Vitaphone discs.

The story behind "The Singing Fool" is not that remarkable. It is overly sentimental and you can see from the start exactly where it is headed. Jolson plays singing waiter Al Stone who loves snobby Molly, a singer at the night spot where he works. Likewise, Al is loved in secret by the cafés's cigarette girl. When Al makes a big hit with an agent, Molly suddenly finds Al - and his money and fame - very attractive. Of course Al is blind to Molly's poisonous ways until it is too late. You have to remember that the whole purpose behind the film is to give you a chance to see and hear the world's greatest entertainer, Al Jolson, singing on screen in his prime. In this film you get that in bigger doses than you got in "The Jazz Singer". So, if you are a Jolson fan, you are in for a big treat. However, be warned this film is what was known in 1928 and 1929 as a "goat gland" movie. That is, it is part silent. The exact ratio is about 75% talking, 25% silent. How it is chopped into sound/silent portions is particularly baffling. Some dialogue is sound, then will abruptly transition to silent. Warner's had already made an all-talking picture, in fact they made the first - 1928's "The Lights of New York". That film was supposed to be a two reel short that grew to six reels when Jack Warner was out of town, but it was a huge hit and sent the march towards talking pictures into overdrive. With the technical challenges of making an all-talking picture behind them, you would have thought Warner Bros. would have made Jolson's second talking picture an extra special effort and given it the all-talking treatment too. They didn't, but it was still a huge success. In conclusion, if you are a Jolson fan and you are interested in the early sound era of motion pictures, you'll love this film.

Singing waiter Al Jolson (as Al Stone) wants to be song-writer. Inspired by the woman he loves, beautiful blonde Josephine Dunn (as Molly Winton), Mr. Jolson becomes a Broadway musical sensation. Attracted to success and money, Ms. Dunn marries Jolson. From the onset, we know Ms. Dunn is fonder of handsome gangster-types, like Reed Howes (as John Perry). She eventually leaves Jolson, taking his beloved son Davey Lee (as "Sonny Boy") from the singer. Consequently, Jolson falls on hard times. He returns to Blackie Joe's cafe, where he started as a singing waiter, and becomes reacquainted with pretty cigarette girl Betty Bronson (as Grace)...

This follow-up to "The Jazz Singer" (1927) attracted even more box office money than its revolutionary predecessor. The earlier film was considered the first popular "talkie", but was really a "silent" with some dialogue used on the synchronized soundtrack. Quigley Publications, known presently for their annual top 10 money-making stars list, named "The Singing Fool" as their Best Picture of the year. This one has some silent sequences, possibly intending to recapture the magic of hearing Jolson break into the silent medium; the attempt is successful, but may be lost on modern viewers. Today, this looks like hokum of the highest order...

However, Jolson is entertaining and director Lloyd Bacon does well with the players. The plot is trite and obvious, but parts of the film are quite artful. "Sonny Boy" b/w "There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" went to #1 on the record charts and stayed there for nearly four months, becoming one of Jolson's biggest million-sellers. He was the first recording star to rack up repeated "gold records" and this film preserves his "Sonny Boy" as a video visual. Seeing Jolson sing this song as he held his "Sonny Boy" was what viewers went to see, again and again. It's a great song and effective representation; and, it certainly started a trend.

******* The Singing Fool (9/19/28) Lloyd Bacon ~ Al Jolson, Josephine Dunn, Betty Bronson, Davey Lee

So said Cosmo Brown about effervescent Don Lockwood in talkie satire SINGIN IN THE RAIN....and so can be attributed with equal exuberance to Al Jolson in this prehistoric box office blockbuster gramophone talkie from 1928. It is famous for a dozen reasons... all of which you can read on the other posts which explain them in detail. I waded through THE SINGING FOOL for several reason of my own: I wanted to see such a successful film from 1928; the fantastic deco atmosphere of genuine flapper 20s in the nightclub scenes, the idea this film is part talkie and part silent is quite fascinating; and is a terrific example of emerging technology of the time. The clothes furnishings and art direction are easily enough to keep you watching. The music score does not quite fit in some parts but is a valiant attempt to fully orchestrate the entire film and lay a voice track on top. Jolson looks remarkably like Steve Martin in some scenes and perhaps this notion could work in a Jolson bio today. At times I thought I was watching an alternate version of DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID. The look and style of the deco 20s as modern film making and with talking acting scenes makes it a fascinating mix. The child who plays Sonny Boy (Davy Lee) is remarkable for a 4 year old kid, very natural and quite emotional. Jolson's often-scary possessed acting style is mostly pantomime maudlin or simpleton over-expressive, but I attribute that to the silent era acting zapped with electrical wiring. A TITANIC level grosser of its day, THE SINGING FOOL was the most successful film of all time up until 1939 so make sure read the other comments. All quite fascinating.

The maudlin plot is obviously a matter of taste, but Al Jolson himself said he thought 'The Singing Fool' a better film than 'The Jazz Singer', and it unquestionably displays an impressive advance in the development of the sound film in the space of less than a year, and stands up remarkably well after nearly ninety more.

It's still only a part-talkie (and owes its impressive opening twenty minutes to the fact that it's been shot as a silent with a subjective camera roaming around a vividly depicted speakeasy) to the accompaniment of a Vitaphone score, until Jolson bursts on to the screen, starts his patter and then sings.

Like 'The Jazz Singer', 'The Singing Fool' returns to being a silent film after the first song; but the sound scenes are far more frequent and adroitly assembled into a narrative here, while the Vitaphone score (which also accompanies the dialogue scenes, so we don't get the terrible stilted silences that render so many early talkies almost unwatchable) fluidly papers over the cracks, keeping the entire film flowing gracefully, aided by the smooth photography of Byron Haskin and editing by Ralph Dawson. (Several of the characters speak in both titles and on the soundtrack, including Arthur Housman, in an unusually prominent role in which he remains sober throughout.)

Although leading lady Josephine Dunn is supposed to be a singer herself, we never hear her sing; and her character is so one-dimensionally a heartless high maintenance chancer that - considering she has a hunk played by Reed Howes perpetually in tow - one has time to wonder if Sonny Boy (who looks more like a little girl) is actually Jolson's.

Not all early talkies were all-talking. One of the most notable of the hybrid's is 1928's "The Singing Fool" in which Al Jolson makes a valiant attempt – despite a sticky script and Lloyd Bacon's uncertain direction – to outdo his "The Jazz Singer" (1927). The movie is about three-quarters talkie, one quarter silent. Aside from the jarring of sudden swings from spoken dialog to title cards and the camera fluidity of Bacon's direction in some of the silent sequences versus the static camera set-ups of the sound, the movie succeeds in holding attention thanks to the charisma of its two lead players, Al Jolson and the lovely Josephine Dunn, who, alas, was unable to capitalize on her success here because she was then cast in a series of either indifferent or silent vehicles (when the public was screaming for sound). Within a year, she ended up in support slots. In this movie, despite the magnitude and importance of her role, Miss Dunn is actually billed under Betty Bronson who not only has a minuscule part but a totally inept voice that lacks projection. She seems to be whispering her lines (some of her words are inaudible) rather than speaking them. But never mind, all the film's audio defects were of no importance to moviegoers. They loved Jolson's full-blooded singing and the sheer novelty of sound. Initial domestic rentals topped $5 million, supplanting the $4.5 million takings of 1921's "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". It wasn't until 1938 that this record was broken by Walt Disney's truly colossal $8 million domestic gross for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".