The Jazz Singer (1927)

[MichaelR]

Originally Posted by PuppyJonathan

Hooray for the most belated review!

Not even close.

[MifuneFan]

I don't know much about the movie, but I love how much supplemental material this comes with. Will definitely add to my wishlist.

[joie]

Broadway Melody (1929) (DVD), the first talking musical and first sound film to win an Oscar, has a lot of vaudeville shorts as an extra feature. I am curious about how the shorts of Jazz Singer overlap or are the same. Both movies are from WB on home video, even though MGM produced the 1929 film.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by joie

Broadway Melody (1929) (DVD), the first talking musical and first sound film to win an Oscar, has a lot of vaudeville shorts as an extra feature. I am curious about how the shorts of Jazz Singer overlap or are the same. Both movies are from WB on home video, even though MGM produced the 1929 film.

The bonus disc 3 DVD in THE JAZZ SINGER set (identical bonus DVDs for both the DVD and Blu-ray sets) has two dozen Warner Bros. Vitaphone shorts mostly about 8-10 minutes each. The bonus shorts on DVD of THE BROADWAY MELODY has a half-dozen MGM Metrotone shorts that are mostly 14-20 minutes with one that's about 8 minutes.

It would be great to see all the shorts remastered in HD for Blu-ray (not to mention THE BROADWAY MELODY and any number of other classic musicals from the late 20s and early 30s. The only short in HD on the Blu-ray of THE JAZZ SINGER is the cartoon I LOVE TO SINGA. All the others included on the Blu-ray disc itself are the same SD transfers that were on the DVD, and all the bonuses are identical except that the Blu-ray has only the trailer to THE JAZZ SINGER instead of a trailer gallery of six Jolson movie trailers (I'd really love to see WONDERBAR make it to Blu-ray, easily the best of Jolson's films and a great Precode musical murder-mystery in its own right).

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

Assuming, as DetroitSquirrel mentioned, you mean the part with Jackie singing, the answer is no, it's not "fixed".

However, I never thought it was wrong. That is to say, I don't think it was intended to be one of the portions of synchronized audio that we get later with Jolson. I've always thought of that as just a section of ambient sound intended to give the impression of young Jackie singing. The true sychronized sound is used sparingly, apparently for scenes with Jolson himself.

That's just my thought. I think if that section was REALLY intended to be sync sound, Warner would have "fixed" it by now. I'm guessing that what you see and hear on the disc is likely the way it has always been (since 1927).

I know the sync for the young Jakie's songs are only approximate, since they were the same on my old laserdisc and 16mm prints I've seen. When I first got the DVD set of THE JAZZ SINGER, the second couple of reels or so, including the Jolson's first line "You ain't heard nothin' yet" and his rendition of "Toot-toot Tootsie" were roughly a half-second out of sync, which was incredibly annoying. The sync got better in the last half of the movie.

Since getting the Blu-ray, I took another look at the DVD for comparison (on a newer Blu-ray player), and now the DVD plays in perfect sync! I am thus now guessing it must be due to an authoring anomaly from Warner Brothers Video that is not compatible with all players. I've had exactly the same problem with several (but not all) of the Vitaphone shorts on the Warner Archives Vitaphone Shorts Collections, with some playing about a half-second to a second out of sync, some playing in slow motion, and some just freezing up on various brands of older players, but the exact same discs play perfectly on my newest Blu-ray player (a Sony, BTW).

[*PREACHER*]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

The bonus disc 3 DVD in THE JAZZ SINGER set (identical bonus DVDs for both the DVD and Blu-ray sets) has two dozen Warner Bros. Vitaphone shorts mostly about 8-10 minutes each. The bonus shorts on DVD of THE BROADWAY MELODY has a half-dozen MGM Metrotone shorts that are mostly 14-20 minutes with one that's about 8 minutes.

It would be great to see all the shorts remastered in HD for Blu-ray (not to mention THE BROADWAY MELODY and any number of other classic musicals from the late 20s and early 30s. The only short in HD on the Blu-ray of THE JAZZ SINGER is the cartoon I LOVE TO SINGA. All the others included on the Blu-ray disc itself are the same SD transfers that were on the DVD, and all the bonuses are identical except that the Blu-ray has only the trailer to THE JAZZ SINGER instead of a trailer gallery of six Jolson movie trailers (I'd really love to see WONDERBAR make it to Blu-ray, easily the best of Jolson's films and a great Precode musical murder-mystery in its own right).

Does anyone know if the UK steelbook of this has the extras on one disc? Amazon says 1 disc and I'm guessing that may be an error on their part? Anyone?

Thanks in advance!!!

[joie]

Originally Posted by *PREACHER*

Does anyone know if the UK steelbook of this has the extras on one disc? Amazon says 1 disc and I'm guessing that may be an error on their part? Anyone?

Thanks in advance!!!

Was looking at the UK edition and thought they might have put the DVD extras on the Blu-ray disc (in SD), but don't know. Both the US & UK Blu-rays are spec'd at 25 GB, so maybe not, but specs are often wrong until someone with the disc(s) in hand takes the time to find out what's on them.

[bluskies]

I have just started watching the Blu and I am surprised by the amount of restoration that has been done. I have the DVD set that came out a few years ago, and they touted THAT as "Painstakingly Restored and Remastered." But look at these sample differences I took pictures of and notice how abundant the vertical lines are in the DVD (what they called "painstakingly restored"):

(The top is the DVD and the bottom is the Blu-ray)





Closer photo of both:





Another scene:

[ilovenola2]

Originally Posted by joie

Broadway Melody (1929) (DVD), the first talking musical and first sound film to win an Oscar, has a lot of vaudeville shorts as an extra feature. I am curious about how the shorts of Jazz Singer overlap or are the same. Both movies are from WB on home video, even though MGM produced the 1929 film.

The shorts on "The Jazz Singer" BR are not from "Broadway Melody." The are brought over from the "JazzS.." DVD release and are absolutely fascinating!! "Baby Rose Marie" has a shot--who was this vaudevillian child star?? Just the Rose Marie who later played "Sally" on the "Dick van Dyke Show." And George Burns and Gracie Allen, who became even more famous via their 1950s TV show, perform one of their vaudeville routines. All in all, the supplementary material here is as historically valid, if not more so, than "The Jazz Singer" itself. The feature looks just great on BR and Jolson really was the the theatrical powerhouse of legend! I gave my dvd set to a friend and happily ponied up for the BR set. I can't recommend it too highly!

[Atreyu]

Yes Warner did an awesome job with this blu. Cannot wait for the Gangster box set with Robinson, Cagney and Bogart.

[ilovenola2]

Originally Posted by Atreyu

Yes Warner did an awesome job with this blu. Cannot wait for the Gangster box set with Robinson, Cagney and Bogart.

I agree, Atreyu (love THAT film myself!), but I'm really disappointed that the Gangster box set will have only 4 of the 6 movies that are in the DVD set (which I own). I'm really sorry that "Angels With Dirty Faces" won't be on BR as I think it's a wonderful movie! But I can't wait to see "The Petrified Forest" on blu-ray!! One of my favorite films!