shearerchic

On Oct. 16, Warner Home Video will debut the DVD of the studio’s 1927 landmark movie The Jazz Singer, which was the first feature-length film to have synchronized dialog and musical sequences.

The Al Jolson-starring title will be issued in a three-disc 80th Anniversary Collector’s Edition that contains, among other things, a restored and remastered version of the film featuring a refurbished soundtrack, a collection of period cartoons, shorts and rare Vitaphone comedy and music pieces, a handful of early sound era shorts and the newly produced feature-length documentary The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk. The package will carry a list price of $39.98.

The Jazz Singer “is going to be one of the landmark releases for 2007,” said WHV’s senior VP of theatrical catalog marketing George Feltenstein, who’s particularly proud of the new documentary.

FILMCZY

Is Neil Diamond THAT old?

Mondo Kane

We all know that Warners usually likes to go for the original poster-art for their classic releases. But methinks this poster might by their ONLY option.

PopcornTreeCt

Can't wait.

Boba Fett

Dollars to donuts, a single disc edition arrives six months down the line.

Personally I'm intrested in the film itself, not the extras for this one and don't wish to pay $30 for it.

Sondheim

I, on the other hand, am more interested in the special features than I am in the film itself.

In my opinion, the film just isn't all that great - but it's still something I want in my home DVD library due to its importance in film history.

Anyways, it looks like Warner has put together another excellent set.

mike7162

Mammy!

bboisvert

I'm with me12321 on this one. The film itself is not something that I consider to be all that great, and it has very limited rewatch value to me.

The great stuff from my perspective will be the documentaries and other historical pieces to put this in context. That makes it a must-buy.

Kerborus

Holy Crap!!! Finally! Now the last AFI film will be African Queen. This is a must pick up for me.

manicsounds

DVD Special Features:

Disc 1 – The Movie
All new feature digital transfer and immaculately refurbished soundtrack from restored picture elements and original Vitaphone-Sound-on-Disc recordings
Commentary by film historians Ron Hutchinson and Vince Giordano
Collection of rare cartoons and shorts:
I Love to Sing-a classic 1936 WB parody cartoon directed by Tex Avery
Hollywood Handicap classic M-G-M short with Al Jolson appearance
A Day at Santa Anita classic Technicolor Warner Bros. short with Al Jolson & Ruby Keeler cameo appearance
“Al Jolson in ‘A Plantation Act’ “1926 Vitaphone short made a year prior to The Jazz Singer
An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros. Silver Jubilee
1947 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast starring Al Jolson (audio only)
Al Jolson Trailer Gallery

Disc 2 – The Early Sound Era
All-new feature-length documentary The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk
Two rarely-seen Technicolor excerpts from Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929 WB film, most of which is considered lost)
Studio shorts celebrating the early sound era:
Finding His Voice (1929 Western Electric animated promotional short, produced by Max Fleischer)
The Voice That Thrilled The World - Warner Bros. short about sound
Okay for Sound 1946 WB short celebrating the 20th anniversary of Vitaphone
When Talkies Were Young 1955 WB short looking back at the early talkies
The Voice from the Screen 1926 WB ‘demonstration’ film explores the Vitaphone technology and, looks at the making of a Vitaphone short.

Disc 3 – VITAPHONE SHORTS

In Warner Bros. began producing a series of short films which utilized the Vitaphone process. These films ran the gamut from musical theater legends and vaudeville acts, to dramatic vignettes and classical music performances from the most prestigious artists of the era. Most of these were shorts considered lost for decades, until a consortium of archivists and historians joined forces with a goal to restore these magnificent time capsules of entertainment history. Up until now, contemporary audiences have only been able to see these shorts via rare retrospective showings in a few large cities, or through the limited release of a restored handful of the earliest subjects, which were part of a 1996 laserdisc set. This new collection will finally make these amazing rarities available to the thousands of film fans awaiting their DVD debut.


Over 3 1/2 hours worth of rare, historic Vitaphone comedy and music shorts

Elsie Janis in a Vaudeville Act: “Behind the Lines”
Bernado Depace: “Wizard of the Mandolin”
Van and Schneck: “The Pennant Winning Battery of Songland”
Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields
Hazel Green and Company
The Night Court
The Police Quartette
Ray Mayer & Edith Evans: “When East Meets West”
Adele Rowland: “Stories in Song”
Stoll, Flynn and Company: “The Jazzmania Quintet”
The Ingenues in “The Band Beautiful”
The Foy Family in “Chips off the Old Block”
Dick Rich and His Melodious Monarchs
Gus Arnheim and His Ambassadors [
Shaw and Lee: “The Beau Brummels”
Larry Ceballos’ Roof Garden Revue
Trixie Friganza in “My Bag O’ Tricks”
Green’s Twentieth Century Faydetts
Sol Violinsky: “The Eccentric Entertainer”
Ethel Sinclair and Marge La Marr in “At the Seashore”
Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats
Baby Rose Marie: “The Child Wonder”
Burns & Allen in “Lambchops “
Joe Frisco in “The Happy Hottentots”

Outstanding Collector’s Edition Bonuses:
Rarely seen behind-the-scenes Photo cards
Original release Lobby card reproductions
Original release Souvenir Program book reproduction
Booklet with vintage document reproductions and DVD features guide
Reproduction of post-premiere telegram from Al Jolson to Jack L. Warner


I think $40 is a steal for all this

Mr. Salty

No 5.1 surround sound, no sale!

Kidding. This looks like a must-have for classic-film fans.

Dane Marvin

Me too. I'll give it a watch like every 10 years or so... but will really dig into the bonus features, which sound like they will be great. Really excited for this release; it's one of the big ones. $40 does not seem too steep for this -- especially considering you'll probably be able to pick up a copy for around $25-28 somewhere. Can't wait to see what everything looks like -- I'm picturing something as elaborate as the Wizard of Oz Three-Disc and Gone With the Wind Four-Disc CE.

Dane Marvin

The Jazz Singer actually did not make the AFI Top 100 list the second time around...(#90 the first time, now it's off the list).

Ambassador

As it should be.

A very mediocre movie, when all is said and done.

Kerborus

Yeah that whole first talking movie thing is very overated.

Simpson Purist

WOW, this looks like one hell of a package. Gotta love Warner and their treatment of classic movies.

Ambassador

Technical innovation does not necessarily equate to excellent filmmaking, as a look at many recent CGI-driven movies should demonstrate.

Sure, The Jazz Singer was an influential film, and as a landmark, it deserves to be seen once by every true film buff. But let's face it. It's a lousy, cliched movie. (Even Sam Raphaelson, the author of the original play, disliked this movie intensely.)

Dane Marvin

Is this the true cover art (it's what Amazon has up now) even though they do not have the DVD for order:

Gerry P.

Two things make The Jazz Singer worth owning. 1) Al Jolson's brilliant musical talent and 2) the heartfelt portrayal of Jewish faith, a rarely explored theme in Jewish led Hollywood.

p.s. The cover art is excellent.

PatrickMcCart

It wasn't the first of anything. It's a silent film with song sequences and a handful of dialogue adlibs. There's complete sound films from the turn of the century, with sync sound. There's plenty of other shorts from before 1927 too.

Come on, if The Jazz Singer is "great" only for that, why isn't Becky Sharp on any lists since it was the first 3-strip Technicolor feature? Or Toll of the Sea, for that matter (first cemented positive 2-strip Technicolor feature). I forgot which it is, but what about the first of the 1929-1930 65mm widescreen films?

First doesn't mean great.

Kerborus

Point taken, but there are a lot of film fans that completely disagree. I myself enjoyed the picture a lot and the music.

Cameron

I'm in day 1 on this...awesome news

for posterity

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....ht=jazz+singer

LorenzoL

DVD Times has the picture of the packaging for this release and it looks great.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=65286

wilky61

Uhhh, am I the only one who thinks that cover-art looks downright terrible?

PopcornTreeCt

I like the cover art. Though I much prefer the inside box cover art.

This set astonishes me, how much they've put on it.