Rypro 525

from alt.movie.silent
"warner Home Video is now completing work on a DVD release of "The Jazz Singer," which will present a restored and much improved soundtrack, "direct-from-disc", as it were. The version that's been circulating for decades is actually an early 1930's sound-on-film print. Now, digital technology has significantly improved the sound quality by working directly from a set of the original Vitaphone discs, which were provided by John Newton of "The Vitaphone Project," and UCLA. The DVD will also include (posters, programmes, etc.,) Intermission music, and several still to be determined short subjects... although Jolson's
"A Plantation Act" (1926) and the trailer for "The Jazz Singer," are definite as of this writing."

i wonder how they can restore this movie to its original quality since the current version they show on tcm looks really bad (bunch of scratches, and lots of hisses and pops in the soundtrack) hopefully this will look as good as citizen kane and singin in the rain.

AsmodeusVice

God, It's about time. I'm glad I didn't try to hunt down the OOP version.

Groucho

Crap, I was hoping this would be the Neil Diamond version.

Cameron

they had been reporting a remaster since about 2 years back...can't wait to see this on dvd. Warner did a great job with the Chaney and Keaton silent sets. I hope the jazz singer is as loaded as that. I wish warner would send some more silent films out. Champagne comes to mind...

PatrickMcCart

Warner doesn't own Champagne. It's public domain in the U.S., but I think either CanalPlus or Carlton owns it in Europe. Also, they only own 8 Alfred Hitchcock films. They distribute only one other for Castle Hill (Foreign Correspondent). All 9 films showed up in their Hitchcock box set.

The only silents Warner Bros. owns are the surviving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros. films... with a few exceptions. While it's in the public domain, they technically hold the rights to the first Paramount film: The Squaw Man.

Cameron

But Ted Turner has a remastered print...from another thread

smirnoffski

Here's hoping we get a Jolson Signature collection, with the Singing Fool, The Singing Kidd, Jazz Singer and a couple of other films in there.

One of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century seriously needs some DVD loving.

Rogue588

That's what I thought this was too..

Mondo Kane

Probably trying to find "acceptable" cover-art for it.

Charlie_Chaplin

HURRAY! Warner is DVD MASTER. The Jazz Singer is a historic movie. First to use synchronized sound, it's mentioned in lots of classic movies (from Singin' in the Rain to Goodfellas). It would be great to see this finally on DVD. Curious to hear the soundtrack.

MEJHarrison

I'll be picking it up for those reasons alone. If it turns out to be a decent movie then that's just icing on the cake.

Mondo Kane

The last time I saw this movie was back in '95 when TCM had a Jolson marathon. My TV guide gave Mammy 4 stars and Jazz Singer only 2, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had those ratings mixed up because Mammy turned out to be dreadfully inferior.

Keep in mind that the movie isn't entirely in sound. Just the musical sequences.

Cameron

from barrie maxwell

In other news, it appears that Warners may now be targeting 2007 for its release of The Jazz Singer, which would mark it as an 80th anniversary release. The release would also showcase an appreciable amount of Vitaphone material including the surviving footage from Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929).

PatrickMcCart

A few things...

The Jazz Singer is not the first film to have synchronized sound at all. Not even dialogue or singing. It was simply the most popular at the time. Don't forget that Vitaphone was being used a full year earlier on shorts and a few features for music/effects (like Don Juan).

Also, The Jazz Singer is a pretty bad movie except when Jolson is singing. It would have been a great film if they threw out the plot and just edited together the musical sequences.

It's still worth seeing. It's somewhat important, but it's overrated often.

thing-fish24

IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!

I've been waiting so long for a DVD of "The Jazz Singer". I've even started a petition to get it released on DVD:
http://www.petitiononline.com/JazzDVD/petition.html

(Note: I got the title and year of the short film mentioned in the text wrong: When I referred to "Mammy's Boy," I was actually thinking of "A Plantation Act." "Mammy's Boy" is an unfinished silent film with Jolson Ah, I'm such a putz for not reading Jolson's IMDb listing carefully)

I sure hope the Jazz Singer special edition gets released. It's a classic.

thing-fish24

It's the first FEATURE FILM with synchronized sound.

NO, it's one of the best movies ever made. The plot is great. "The Jazz Singer" is a GREAT MOVIE, peroid.

DVD Josh

Any chance you could be wrong?

Albert71292

I also think it's one of the best movies ever made. I have a VHS I recorded from TCM which I still watch at least twice a year, I have a hardcover book of the script, and a two-record (vinyl) set of the original soundtrack. As for the Neil Diamond fiasco, they couldn't PAY ME to watch it again!

/just sayin'

Ambassador

Untrue! The first feature film with synchronized sound was the 1926 John Barrymore swashbuckler Don Juan, which incidentally was directed by Alan Crosland (who also helmed The Jazz Singer). What you probably mean is that The Jazz Singer was the first feature film to use synchronized sound for dialogue. (Don Juan only had a synchronized musical score and effects track.)

BTW, I personally find The Jazz Singer to be a saccharin, overly melodramatic mess. Its story was already trite in 1927, and Samson Raphaelson, who wrote the original play and went on to great success as a scriptwriter for Ernst Lubitsch in his own right, considered the movie to be an embarrassment.

thing-fish24

That's your opinion. Most others consider it to be a classic.

"The Jazz Singer" isn't "trite"! The story is beautiful!

Do you have any proof of this? And if so, who cares what he thinks? The movie was still a success, and was widely celebrated by critics and viewers alike. It's a classic, and it will always be a classic.

DVD Josh

That's a better attitude. The other dude was like "this is the best movie of all time, period, I'm right, you're wrong, so suck it.".

Ambassador

Hence why I used the key word "personally" in my post, though I'm not sure that I'd agree with your assertion that "most others consider it to be a classic" as if it were objective fact. For instance, Leonard Maltin refers to it as "creaky."

What was that about opinion again?

I do have proof. Just watch the 30-minute PBS show Creativity with Bill Moyers: A Portrait of Samson Raphaelson, which is included as an extra on Criterion's release of Heaven Can Wait; Raphaelson clearly states that he was still embarrassed by the film in 1982!

Who cares what he thinks? Well, I'm willing to grant some measure of respect to an original author's opinion of a film adaptation. It isn't necessarily definitive, but it carries the weight of authorial intention.

And do all classics necessarily always remain classics? Well, why don't you watch the first few Oscar winners for Best Picture and get back to me. If you can stay awake through a marathon run of Wings, The Broadway Melody, Cimarron, and Cavalcade, that is....

Jeez! I don't understand why some people take it so personally when you dislike a movie they like. It's not like I'm profaning a sacred text or anything like that.

jimnysf

But the Neil Diamond version has already been released twice. The most recent version came out a few months ago as a "25th Anniversary Edition"

There is another version with Danny Thomas and Peggy Lee from 1952 that hasn't been released on DVD yet.

thing-fish24

"The Jazz Singer" without Jolson is like the Mona Lisa without color: it just doesn't work.

uebetan12@yahoo

well,it appears that the long wait is over. BUT WHEN WILL WE BE FINALLY ABLE TO BUY AND HAVE A COPY OF THE DVD OF THIS CLASSIC AND VERY IMPORTANT MOVIE,MAYBE THIS LATE 2006?