Lucky Boy

... when it came to casting the Jazz Singer. George Jessel was much closer to the age of the protagonist than Jolson was, but Jolson made you forget about that with the way his dynamic performance just leaped off of the screen.

"Lucky Boy" had dialogue that was actually written by Jessel, and it has the same basic outline as the Jazz Singer - Jessel's father wants him to learn and take over the family jewelry business, but Jessel wants to entertain. After a bad break at home in New York, he takes off out west to try and make it in the entertainment business and makes it big in radio. Then when his mother turns ill he returns home, a success. But at no point does his father, unlike Warner Oland, yell "STOP!". Complications ensue.

This film HAD to have something different from The Jazz Singer in story, or the similarity would be so obvious as to be ridiculous. Thus there is a bit of a class struggle inserted. Once Jessel is a success, he falls for a rich girl out west. Her family tolerates this relationship with somebody outside of her regular crowd, but things come to a head when Jessel makes a passing remark that unintentionally almost uncovers an extramarital affair within her family.

There is one thing that is not explained very well. When Jessel is getting ready to go west and seek his fortune, he is saying an emotional goodbye to a girl for whom he obviously has strong feelings. And this girl just disappears from the plot never to be seen or spoken of again. Things like the disappearing love interest and the dearth of adequate title cards might be explained by the fact that this film was shot twice - the first time silent in 1928, and then again with sound for the musical numbers and the talking sequences. This delayed the film's release a full year into early 1929.

If you look closely, towards the beginning you'll notice Glenda Farrell in an uncredited role as a talent agent's secretary. Also, William Gargan, a rather popular supporting actor in the 1930s, is playing an actor sitting in that same outer office.

This is probably something that will be of interest to film history buffs and students of the transition to sound and the earliest sound musicals. It is for those people I give this a 7/10 rating. It's fortunate that Tiffany made this one. If Warner Brothers had made it, it would likely be lost like the vast majority of their very early talking films.

The background information about "Lucky Boy" is in many ways much more interesting than the story itself. Back in the mid-1920s, George Jessel starred in the play "The Jazz Singer" and it was a big hit on Broadway. So, it wasn't surprising when Warner Brothers bought the rights to the play that they wanted Jessel to reprise his role. In one of the dumbest mistakes in film history, Jessel refused...as he demanded too much for playing in the film. As a result, the studio recast the film with Al Jolson...and the actor went on to great acclaim for this role. As for Jessel, he still had a successful stage career but he never was known for his work in films.

The weird thing about all this is that "Lucky Boy" is pretty much a reworking of "The Jazz Singer", though there is (thankfully) no black-face number. Instead, the film amps up the schmaltz and the film is just dripping with sentimentality. It also works VERY hard to make Jessel seem like the nicest man in New York, if not the world, and that, to me, is the biggest weakness of the story. Again and again, folks say how nice he is and again and again, the plot makes Jessel seem like a candidate for sainthood...which is a fine trick since he was so incredibly stereotypically Jewish!

Like "The Jazz Singer", the story begins with showing how alienated George is with his very traditional father. But instead of the father wanting him to become a Cantor in the synagogue, George's dad wants him to carry on the family's jewelry repair business. George insists he wants to be an entertainer and the first half of the film is about his struggle to make it big...though the end results seem like a foregone conclusion. The final portion involves George falling for a Gentile girl and his attempts to be accepted. And, like in "The Jazz Singer", it ends with George on stage proclaiming his mother's magnficence.

So is it any good? Yes and no. On one hand, the story is slightly better than "The Jazz Singer". On the other, it really seems like a self-serving vanity project (after all, Jessel himself wrote the dialog) and the film is VERY dated. It's not just dated because it heavily 'borrows' from "The Jazz Singer", but like "The Jazz Singer", it is NOT an all-talking film, as many portions are silent...something not uncommon in 1927-28...but not exactly state of the art in 1929. Overall, an interesting curio but one that just makes you think how foolish Jessel was with his prideful refusal to appear in film as "The Jazz Singer"...and he sure seems to be trying hard to recreate this very same magic.

The talking sequences in this Part-Talking film are unintentionally funny. I assume this was Tiffany's first attempt at making a film with talking sequences as I have never seen an early talkie with such slow speech, as if it was necessary for the actors to speak slowly in order for the audience to understand. The film would have been improved if the talking sequences were replaced with the Synchronized Score. The singing sequences are OK. The best songs are "My Mother's Eyes" and "Among My Souvenirs".... but based on his performance in this film, George Jessel was no actor. His singing is pleasing however, if a bit overly sentimental.

A very young Glenda Farrell appears in a bit role as a secretary and she is the best actor who has a speaking part. Her voice is natural and not slow and ridiculous like most of the rest of the actors. Margaret Quimby, for example, who plays George Jessel's love interest is terrible and her slow speech and overacting is laughable. Gwen Lee, Richard Tucker and Mary Doran (all of whom were superb actors in early talkies) are completely wasted in non-talking parts and not given a chance to speak. We hear Richard Tucker say exactly two words while he is off screen. Clearly Tiffany-Stahl was clueless about what actors had voices suitable for talking pictures.

George Jessel made a huge mistake in turning down Warners' THE JAZZ SINGER in 1927. In 1928 he tried to right things and get his film career on track with LUCKY BOY. The story is very similar even down to the mother, but Jessel just didn't have the dynamic personality or singing talent of Jolson (or Eddie Cantor for that matter). The film (about 70 minutes) is likable enough but is an obvious copy of the Jolson smash. Jessel sings "My Mother's Eyes" about a dozen times!

Gwen Lee is interesting here as the girl friend's mean sister. Also notable is Glenda Farrell in her film debut as the secretary. She wouldn't make another film until 1931's LITTLE CAESAR. Rosa Rosanova is the mother, William Strauss is the jeweler father. Margaret Quimby plays Eleanor (very pretty) but she has an awful talking voice. This film also claims Sig Rumann and William Gargan in bit parts but I never spotted them.

Jessel himself in his talkie debut is OK. He's likable enough but his singing talent just isn't big enough. He had done a handful of ethnic silent films and Vitaphone shorts, but he's just not film star material. He alternates between looking like Kevin Kline and Tobey Maguire.

This early part-talkie is often listed as being a "lost film," but it is available.