The Singing Fool

THE SINGING FOOL (Warner Brothers, 1928), directed by Lloyd Bacon, is a worthy follow-up to the historic "first talkie" of THE JAZZ SINGER (WB, 1927), starring Broadway headliner Al Jolson. Upon its release, THE SINGING FOOL reportedly broke all box office records to date, until that record was broken 11 years later with the Civil War epic of "Gone With the Wind" (Selznick, 1939). But in spite of its popularity with the public way back when, THE JAZZ SINGER remains well known to cinema history while THE SINGING FOOL today is virtually forgotten, which is unfortunate because it's a much better movie than THE JAZZ SINGER. The one thing both movies have in common other than being musical dramas is that they are both part-talkies, with THE SINGING FOOL featuring more songs and dialog than its predecessor.

The story opens in the silent film tradition with title cards and Vitaphone orchestral score at Blackie Joe's (Arthur Housman) café where Al Stone (Al Jolson), works as a waiter (title cards read: "By occupation, a waiter; by ambition, a songwriter; by nature, a singing fool"). Al is hopelessly in love with a pretty blonde named Molly Winton (Josephine Dunn), a cold-hearted but ambitious singer who entertains at the club. Also employed at Blackie Joe's is Grace (Betty Bronson), a petite cigarette girl who secretly loves Al. Because Molly shows her lack of interest in Al and his proposed love song written especially for her, Al decides to impress her by going out, taking the spotlight and introducing his song to the patrons. The song makes such an impression with Louis Marcus (Edward Martindel), a famous producer visiting the club with his guests, that he offers Al a contract to perform on Broadway. After learning of this, Molly "suddenly" takes an interest in Al, who accepts Marcus's offer on the promise that he could take Molly along with him. Over the next few years, Al and Molly, now married, become successful headliners, with Molly scoring success singing the songs Al has written for her. Al opens up a nightclub where he not only manages but is its star singing attraction, with the catch phrase, "I'm going to sing you a thousand songs." What makes Al's personal life so complete is his little three-year-old son he calls Sonny Boy (David "Davey" Lee). But all that changes when Molly becomes bored with Al and finds herself having a secret rendezvous with Al's friend, John (Reed Howes) while he entertains at the club. Due to Molly's extravagant spending which puts Al heavily in debt, the marriage falls apart, causing Molly to walk out on Al, taking Sonny Boy with her. After Al hits the skids, he struggles to restore his career.

THE SINGING FOOL features many memorable tunes, all sung by Jolson, compliments of songwriters Lew Brown, B.G. DeSylva and Ray Henderson, including: "It All Depends on You," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World," "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" (written by Billy Merson); "There's A Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder," "Golden Gate," "Sonny Boy" (sung by Jolson to Davey Lee in front of a Christmas tree); "Keep Smiling at Trouble," "Sonny Boy" (reprise) and "Sonny Boy" (finale with Jolson in black-face). Of all the songs written for the film, most of which became Jolson standards, "Sonny Boy" took the honors as its Number One song of the year, almost outdoing Jolson's signature song of "Mammy." As for "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life," no movie print today is known to exist containing this song and number. However, in the motion picture soundtrack album to THE SINGING FOOL, distributed in music/record stores in 1981, featuring a still photo of Jolson in Mexican attire of that number on cover, compliments of TAKE TWO RECORDS, DOES include that missing song, along with the closing instrumental "Sonny Boy" theme song at the end of the soundtrack not available in today's movie print.

In spite of THE SINGING FOOL being overly sentimental at times, it succeeds without going overboard. Jolson's occasional bad acting during the dramatic moments is evident here, especially during the talking segments when he is arguing with his wife, for example, but appears more relaxed and natural when he gets his chance to be funny in reciting witty dialog and singing those lively tunes. Jolson's bonding with Davey Lee comes across in a believable manner on screen. One particular segment where Al gets to bid goodbye to his Sonny Boy in Central Park before the boy leaves for Paris with his mother and her lover, ranks one of the most tender moments ever captured on film. What makes this scene so memorable is that it is done with the underscoring to "Sonny Boy" with dialog between father and son presented only on screen through well-written title cards. Aside from Davey Lee almost succeeding in becoming another Jackie Coogan (a popular boy actor of the 1920s), which never happened, there is Betty Bronson, best known to silent movie lovers as PETER PAN (Paramount, 1925), in one of her first adult movie roles giving a convincing tearful performance. Sadly, her voice sometimes doesn't register clearly on the soundtrack, which at times her spoken dialog gets drowned out during the music underscoring. The same also happens with Josephine Dunn. Also in the supporting cast are Robert Emmett O'Connor as Bill Cline; and Arthur Housman, famous for his numerous drunken characters in many comedy shorts and features, giving in a rare sober performance.

In spite of its age, THE SINGING FOOL still ranks one of the best feature films made during the dawn of sound. It can be seen and studied when presented on Turner Classic Movies. (****)

The movie is obviously designed as a Jolson vehicle. It is pretty obvious that the star came first, and everything else followed.

Despite being made in 1928, the film holds up remarkably well today, the humour being one aspect that hasn't dated. Jolson sings Sonny Boy to great effect three times, although he puts so much emotion into it that I was left wanting him to sing is straight just once. The film may seem oversentimental but if you engage with this and look at it from the point of view of a contemporary audience you will enjoy it more, and the film's shock ending is, in my opinion one of the bravest I have seen Hollywood do. In fact the only shock endings which I think compare with this are Terry Gilliam's Brazil or Doctor Who: Earthshock.

The supporting performances are sterling, but there's no other actor who has the Charisma of Jolson. It's apparent to me that nowadays, the film's leading lady, Josephine Dunn, playing a singer, would have been given one or two songs to sing, but the producers rightly realised that the audience was there to see Jolson and Jolson alone.

The film is also of historical interest, being one of the first talkies. It's apparent that synchronised sound is used sparingly, and, like its near-contemporary The Jazz Singer, the opening parts use caption slides in place of speech.

Enjoy it for its Jazz age settings, the grand costumes (Miss Dunn's gowns are particularly exquisite) and of course for Jolson's singing.

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

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.

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.