Watch King of Jazz For Free

Powerful

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It's both impossible and unrealistic to write about this movie - now eighty-seven years old - on anything other than its own terms. One can only try to imagine how lavish it must have appeared to those first audiences, and what is almost unwatchable today - John Boles, for example, is beyond embarrassing in his pathetic rendition of It Happened In Monterrey, which sounds as if he recorded it to a spinet accompaniment, whereas the Sinatra version, itself sixty-one years old, sounds as if it was recorded last week. They also 'lifted' a Peter Arno cartoon from The New Yorker - the one where a couple in a precinct house, the man carrying an automobile seat, ask about reporting a stolen car; for the record this was the freshest sketch on display. Elsewhere we get an early glimpse of Bing Crosby, still one third of the Rhythm Boys, and a reprise of Rhapsody In Blue. It has a certain merit as a time-capsule but that's about it.

Back in the day, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra were big...almost Elvis big. Today, practically no one has heard of the guy though one of his band's soloists, Bing Crosby, went on to super-stardom. But you can tell Whiteman and his band was quite the powerhouse when you see this 1930 film and put it in perspective compared to other Hollywood films from the same year. First, very, very few films had any color in them in 1930 and when they did have Two-Color Technicolor, it was used for only a few minutes at a time--such as for big production numbers. Yet, amazingly, this film is in Two- Color Technicolor for the entire movie--a very, very expensive proposition! Second, the sets and costumes are incredibly lavish and look amazing. The bridal-style dresses in one of the numbers is just eye-popping! Third, the cinematography and sound are state of the art. Watching the tiny people climbing out of the handbag is STILL a technically amazing scene...and for 1930 it's really astonishing. As far as the story goes, there is none. The film consists of one production number after another as well as a few comedy sketches and animations. This isn't a complaint...but it also makes it one of the most unusual films of all time. It's not really a musical in a traditional sense--more a record of a bygone era and acts. Some of the skits or musical numbers are pretty dated and haven't aged too well, some are still impressive. In many ways, this film is more something for film historians than the average viewer. Fortunately, the National Film Preservation Board recognized this as well and a pristine (or at least as close to pristine as possible) copy is being held by them for posterity. Well worth seeing and really NOT a film I could easily score. It's a wonderful artifact but might be tough viewing for some viewers.

Fortunately, the history of jazz was little troubled by this farcical musical travesty. The one black person... (did you know that it was people of color who created Jazz, innovated and sustained it decade after decade only to be constantly supplanted by less talented and creative whites who popularized their music and made millions off it?)... who appears is a cute little girl sitting on the lap of Paul White-Man, the purported king of jazz in a brief segment. The only jazzy number in the film is 'Happy Shoes' with the entire remainder of the film devoted to middle of the road popular schmaltz music and pseudo-classical Gershwin. That said, the film, however distasteful, dated and unfunny, is in some ways an important historical predecessor of the Hollywood musicals to come.I had read that the production numbers were something to see, but by the end I no longer cared. Not so hot. Comedy, very poor. Female vocals, very poor. White-man and his vaudevillians, crap. Bing Crosby, as usual, quite good.

What true film buff would not love "King of Jazz"? This film was really quite advanced for an early talkie. The photographic effects are marvelous, from Paul Whiteman's band coming out of a small suitcase to the shadow effect in the "Voodoo Drum Dance" to the Melting Pot montage, there was some real imagination at work here. It is so pleasant to see one of the few remaining two-color Technicolor features. It is fun to see Bing Crosby in his first feature film appearance. The "Rhapsody in Blue" sequence is also impressive. It is a shame that Universal has not seen fit to give this film a proper release on DVD, but I managed to locate a very good quality DVD at a decent price. A beautiful film revue from the early days of sound film with Oscar-winning sets and wonderful music. The tagline for this film reads: "Once in a lifetime...a show like this!"