Some of you may be surprised that I had never seen this movie. Billed as the first 'talkie' film, its actually a silent with musical interludes, and based on a play by Samson Raphaelson who later worked on the scripts for such films as The Shop Around the Corner (1939), Heaven Can Wait (1943) and Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941). Film tackles the timeless theme of disappointing your parents religiously with the jazz music. There are a number of racial ect. stereotypes in this film, like the entire Otto Lederer character, Al Jolson in black face, and an odd comment about how 'queering' yourself means you can never work on Broadway again, I think a definition here must have changed over time. A milestone film in cinema history, and okay as a movie despite an overlong denouement, worth seeing once.
See also (or don't) the 1980 re-make with Neil Diamond.
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Swedish born actor Warner Oland plays Jolson's father in this picture, he is perhaps best known for playing chinese detective Charlie Chan in a series of movies during the 1930's.
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