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Great Film overall

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This movie started the wave of biopics that began after WWII. Larry Parks doesn't look the least bit like Al Jolson. For that matter, the script doesn't look much like Jolson's life either. However, the film is very entertaining with a few ironies for the classic film buff. When Parks is on stage, you really get a taste of Jolson in his prime. Al Jolson actually tutored Parks in how to move and interact with the audience using his own style, and it comes across well, even if it is obvious that you are hearing Jolson's voice during the performances and that this voice does not match Larry Parks' speaking voice at all.Jolson's life story has been sanitized here to keep in line with the values of the post-war motion picture production code, right down to extending the life of Jolson's mother an extra forty years - she died when Al was ten. Also, the movie has Jolson playing the career-absorbed bachelor until he meets his wife Julie Benson (code for Ruby Keeler) when he is in his forties. Yes, Al was career-absorbed, but he still went through two marriages and two divorces before he ever got to Ruby Keeler.Two very interesting points of the film involve the insertion of the fictional character Steve Martin that allegedly got Al into show business and also the choice of director. The first interesting point is that fictional character Steve Martin is played by William Demarest, who actually had a bit part in 1927's "The Jazz Singer". You'll see him sharing a plate of eggs with Al at Coffee Dan's just minutes before Al bursts into song in "Toot Toot Tootsie". Demarest was a bit player over at Warner's during the beginning of his career. He had no real association with Al Jolson that I know of. The second interesting point is the choice of director - Alfred E. Green. Mr. Green was among that group of directors that ground out the early talkies for Warner Bros during the time that Jolson was a star at that studio. However, he never directed any of the eight motion pictures that Al Jolson starred in for Warners. There were four directors that Jolson worked with over at Warner Brothers that were still alive when this film was made, but for some reason none of them got the job.At any rate, the movie is very entertaining and well-paced with great renditions of Jolson's acts and songs. For the unvarnished truth about Jolson's life, try to find a copy of the documentary "The Real Al Jolson Story" made in 1986 and originally telecast by Bravo, back when they really were dedicated to the performing arts and before they became so concerned with Top Chefs and Flipping Out - you know, the same kind of stuff you can find on 50 other channels.

A musical biopic of Al Jolson which stars Larry Parks. Parks got an Oscar nomination as did William Demarest who plays Jolson's mentor. Parks is excellent as Jolson. He has a real sense of enthusiasm and his eyes are expressive. You can see why he became a legendary entertainer. Jolson was the star of The Jazz Singer, the first "talkie." The black face is disturbing, but it was a popular form of entertainment. You hear Jolson's singing of hits like Mammy.One of the main selling points of the movie is not only Parks performance but the all of the scenes that led to Jolson becoming an entertainer. You see scenes from his youth and his family life. The actor who portrays the young Jolson is very good.

I'm slightly bemused to read several raves for this movie; I had assumed that a modern day audience would find the over the top Jolie style risible and I must conclude that the raves are the work of older viewers. By 1946 when the film was made even the guy in the street was beginning to figure out that Jolie was prime ham, a sort of singing Charles Laughton if you will with an ego the size of Texas. By 1946 the ex-band solo singer was well established and the likes of Crosby, Sinatra, Haymes etc mostly just stood in front of a microphone and sang seeing no need to flail the air or ham it up on one knee - on the other hand todays' vocalists are also incapable of standing still and just singing so maybe Jolie's histrionics does strike a chord. If you ARE prepared to suspend disbelief and admire corn and chuzpah in equal measures there the chances are you will enjoy this hoke which is about as accurate as a Mickey Mouse watch - Jolie's mother died when he was eight years old, Julie Benson (in real life Ruby Keeler who refused to lend her name to the film) was Jolie's Third and not First wife as is implied here, the character of Steve Martin was pure fiction etc. Larry Parks does do a fine job of miming and William Demarest is outstanding as a character who didn't exist. If you like your entertainers in yer face you'll love this given that Jolie makes Ethel Merman seem subtle.

This entertaining film biopic of the great singer Al Jolson was a standout film for Columbia in the late 40's. This was a great coup for Columbia as it was the time when MGM ruled the movie musicals. Jolson's box office clout was so much that he was the first entertainer to perform not only in talking films but also in radio as well. His greatest fame though came on the Broadway stages. Known as a magnetic singer who could keep audiences spellbound, Jolson was also in real-life an incredible egomaniac. He actually paid his own brother to stop performing and would often get rid of anyone in a show who seemed to be doing well for fear of their stealing attention from him.Al Jolson also had the dubious honor of being the most famous white performer to sing in "black face"; a racially bigoted form of entertainment made popular during the prior century, was the major entertainer of his era.Larry Parks very ably plays Jolson in a breakthrough role that launched his early film career. It sadly would be just a few years later that Larry would be blacklisted for many years. Parks did a great job lip-syncing Jolson's prerecorded tracks as well as mimicking Jolson's very particular style. He is enjoyable to watch and brings a good deal of charm to the role.Evelyn Keyes is excellent as Jolson's love and wife. The part is very loosely based on Jolson's real-life wife Ruby Keeler. Ms. Keeler who still had little good to say about Jolson, threatened to sue Columbia if they used her name.There is a great scene in the film where Keyes as "Julie Benson" is premiering in a spectacular dance number in the Zigfield Follies. At the start of her dance sequence she freezes and can't go on. Parks/Jolson in an effort to save Julie and her debut runs down the aisle to the stage and begins singing to the music (the song "Liza") which of course saves the day, Julie's career and the show. In real-life Jolson was already married to Ms. Keeler and upon seeing her couldn't take her getting all the attention so he ran downstage and sung the tune. The house went wild as he was such a big star. Zigfield paid Jolson to keep doing it. And much to Ms. Keeler's chagrin he did so for number of nights. The scene-stealer of this film is the great William Demerast as Jolson's fictitious mentor and best friend, "Steve Martin". Demerast is at his wisecracking best, talking out of the side of his mouth with that NYC accent in that snappy Cagneyesque style of his.The numbers are well-staged and fun to watch. The only uncomfortable experience is watching the latent and unspoken racism in the Minstrel numbers. No doubt singers such as Jolson or his contemporaries Eddie Cantor, George Jessel and others did not see painting cork on their faces as a racist act. But also no doubt African-American audiences must have felt the pain of ridicule in watching such fare on the screen.Jolson actually appears in one scene playing himself. There is a long-shot of him dancing on stage during "Swanee", because Larry Parks couldn't quite get the dance down. See if you can find it.Very little of the story is true, but it is a campy entertainment where the actors work hard to make it believable and do a good job. If you can get past the apathy of the time that still thought it was okay to portray "blackface". Then you'll enjoy it. As a kid, I didn't know better and always did enjoy seeing the film. But once I became aware of what was going on, I'd never felt the same about it.Think about it. What you were saw a crude, racist stereotype of your own people on stage? Would you so easily give it a pass as you might now?