At the turn of the 20th century, in the lower East Side of New York, in a ghetto heavily populated by Jewish immigrants, Cantor Rabinowitz (Warner Oland) is a hazzan (cantor). He expects his thirteen-year-old son Jakie Rabinowitz, (Bobby Gordon) to follow in his footsteps and those of five generations of Rabinowitzs to become a cantor. But, Jakie is a young man who defies the traditions of his devout Jewish family.
On Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, the youngster is seen by neighborhood gossip, Yudelson (Otto Lederer), singing popular tunes in a beer garden, and rats him out to his father, who drags him home. He's punished by his father, given a beating and a lecture. The kid tells his concerned mother, Sara (Eugenie Besserer), that he’s going to trade in his yarmulke to be a jazz singer. Then Jakie runs away from home...
... and the movie picks up some years later. Jakie is now an adult, calling himself Jack Robin (Al Jolson). He has become a talented jazz singer, performing in blackface, singing jazz at Coffee Dan’s nightspot in San Francisco, and getting cozy with a vaudeville dancer, Mary Dale (May McAvoy).
Making his beloved mother even more timorous, Mary is a shiksa. Jack attempts to build a career as an entertainer, but his professional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage.
With Mary’s help, Jack is hired to be in the same traveling vaudeville troupe. When Mary lands a gig in New York, she hooks Jack up with the show and he heads for New York to pay a surprise visit home on his father’s sixtieth birthday. Mom is happy to see him, and he sings some jazz songs, and promises to buy her a house in the countrified Bronx. But, his father is irate to see him singing jazz songs in his house, and after a heated argument, tells his son he never wants to see him again.
With the show, 'April Follies', about to open on Yom Kippur, Yudelson comes to the theater while Jack is in a dress rehearsal to tell him his father is sick and there’s no cantor to sing Kol Nidre. Jack refuses, saying he’s a jazz singer. Then Yudelson returns with his Mom, who pleads with him to do it for his dying father, so he can hear his voice once more, before he passes on. Again he refuses, and Mom leaves knowing her son’s heart belongs to the stage.
But, Jack returns, and despite the Broadway producer and Mary urging him to go on stage or else his career will be over, the opening show is canceled, as he sings Kol Nidre so his father can hear it emanating from the nearby synagogue and he dies in peace.
In the end, Jack returns to the Broadway show as a big star, and singing in blackface “Mammy”, as his mother and Yudelson proudly sit in the front row and Mary kvells from the wings.
A1927 American black & white musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland, produced by
Darryl F. Zanuck, written by Alfred A. Cohn, based on the 1925 play of the same title by Samson Raphaelson, the plot was adapted from his short story "The Day of Atonement", starring Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, Eugenie Besserer, Cantor Josef Rosenblatt, Otto Lederer, Bobby Gordon, Richard Tucker, Natt Carr, William Demarest, Anders Randolf, Will Walling, Roscoe Karns, and Audrey Ferris, released by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Darryl F. Zanuck won an Academy Honorary Award for producing the film. Alfred A. Cohn was nominated for Best Writing (Adaptation) at the 1st Academy Awards.
The first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech, but only in several isolated sequences. Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and effectively marked the end of the silent film era with the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system and features six songs performed by Al Jolson.
The film comes out of the silent mode as Jolson boldly states “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet” and goes on to belt out “Toot-Toot-Tootsie Goo’Bye.”
Soundtrack music:
My Gal Sal - music and lyrics by Paul Dresser
Waiting for the Robert E. Lee - music by Lewis F. Muir and lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert
Yussel, Yussel - music by Samuel Steinberg and lyrics by Nellie Casman
Kol Nidre - traditional
Dirty Hands, Dirty Face - music by James V. Monaco and lyrics by Edgar Leslie and Grant Clarke
Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye) - music and lyrics by Gus Kahn, Ernie Erdman, and Dan Russo
Kaddish - traditional
Yahrzeit Licht - traditional
Blue Skies - music and lyrics by Irving Berlin
Mother of Mine, I Still Have You - music by Louis Silvers and lyrics by Grant Clarke
My Mammy - music by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young
In 1996, The Jazz Singer was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". In 1998, the film was chosen in voting conducted by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time, ranking at number ninety.