THE JOLSON STORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 405, 28 March 1947, Page 18

THE JOLSON STORY

(Co!---nbia)

‘THIS technicolour bio graphy of Al Jolson has a good many of the -characteristics of the man whom it practically deifies

and of the theatrical epoch in which he flourished. That is to say, it is loud, brassy, lushly sentimental; the emotions it exhibits are oversimplified and usually vulgar; but though short on restraint it is long om showmanship, and its flamboyance is at least warm-hearted and generous. In the U.S.A., of course, Jolson is not merely famous as the first great star of the talkies but'is also synonymous with a whole chapter of Broadway history, whereas in this country he is remembered’ (by ‘those who still remember him) only as the man who first spoke from the screen and thereafter appeared in a series of increasingly maudlin musicals. So I imagine that the reception given to The Jolson Story by old-time New Zealand picturegoers will depend exactly on whether they used to react to his 1930vintege films with enthusiasm or a slight sensation of nausea. It will be interesting, however, t6 see how the new and inexperienced generation of picturegoers take him, They won't, in fact, be called upon to take undiluted Jolson. The 60-year-old Al, retired these several years from active picture-making, does not ‘himself appear on the screen, his place being filled by an actor half his age named Larry Parks. Yet though they won’t be seeing Al ‘Jolson in person, they will certainly be heating ‘him: it‘ is the authentic Jolson voice which assaults our ears and our emotions from the sound-track with a collection of nearly every song that Jolson ever sang from the stage or from the screen. And Larry Parks, his stand-in, though physically better to look upon than the real’ Al, has done a remarkable job of mimicry, duplicating almost every gesture and grimace of Jolson the super-exhibi'ionist, and especially that athletic, off-the-per-pendicular, gushing style of delivery which makes one feel that the singer is wearing his tonsils as well as his heart on his sleeve. ) % * * : IKE most Hollywood biographies, and ~ particularly those of entertainers and composers still living, the film is very much in the nil nisi bonum tradition. Indeed, it is léss a biography than an apotheosis, since in its protracted examination (two-and-a-half hours approxima‘ely) of Jolson’s career from choir-boy to film-star it rigidly excludes anything scandalous, awkward, or likely to be detrimental to his memory. By concentrating instead on his generous, child-like

nature, his passionate fondness for ginging, and his uncanny flair for showmanship, the story becomes a fabrication of halftruths and outright invention which suggests that Jolson was not only a. very great artist but also a bitterly misunderstood husbarid; a man who sang the way he did because he wanted it to sound "something like prayers," and whose one and only matriage ceased to be idyllic and broke up merely because he became bored with rustic retirement and his wife nobly realised that she was an inadequate audience’ for a genius who loved "faces" in large quantities. The love-interest in the film is the sheerest hokum of all. The producer has concentrated on Jolson’s, romance with Ruby Keeler (who was actually Al’s third wife), and his analysis of the motives which are supposed to have actuated them both in breaking-up their marriage is as shallow and sentimental as one might expect. But it'is easy to understand the ticklish problems of copyright, and other things, that must have been involved in filming this story. For instance, Jolson was a Warner star, but. this production comes from the Columbia studio; and though Ruby Keeler is herself never once mentioned ° (her name is spelt Julie Benson throughcut the story), the titles of a number of Ruby Keeler films are given, Hoyever, Miss Keeler is said to have accepted 25,000 dollars for her co-opera-tion in this matter; and Jolson is also reported to be well satisfied with The Jolson Story. He should be, and not merely because he is getting 50 per cent of the profits from it. Whether Al Jolson is in himself a figure of sufficient importance to be worth making a film about, and a two-and-a-half hour film at that, is a subject that could be debated at length; and if it were I might not be found on the affirmative side. Nevertheless, The Jolson Story is technically of some interest (the fusion of voice and pefformance is just about perfect), and for all the inaccuracy of detail it offers ptobably a fairly faithful panorama of a fabulous era in show business. As such it compares quite well enough with other films of the species. This is not really my sort of entertainment, but it may be yours; and I have to admit that I found myself beguiled by parts of it and in others carried away by its sheer exuberance,