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Neil Diamond, Laurence Olivier, Lucie Arnaz, Catlin Adams

Playing as a musical version of “Rocky” where the local Jewish boy destined to be a cantor makes good as a pop singer, Richard Fleischer’s version of “The Jazz Singer” was critically roasted from the moment it opened. That isn’t to say that the film doesn’t deserve it but it isn’t quite as bad as its vaunted reputation suggests. Certainly the screenplay by Herbert Baker hobbles the film. Baker tries to modernize the story with slang and other touches. They come off as badly as those teen movies that borrowed attitude of teen kids without having any of the genuine emotional undercurrent. Yussel Rabinovitch (Neil Diamond) is the son of the community’s cantor (Lawrence Olivier once again donning an unconvincing European accent). Yussel assumes a stage name and heads off to Los Angeles with a promising career as a songwriter and the chance to do studio work backing a British rock star. He also ditches his wife putting his career first. Despite a falling out with the rock star, Yussel’s agent Molly (Lucie Arnaz) believes in his talent and begins pushing his career as a singer/songwriter. Yussel’s father becomes frustrated with the choices his son makes leading to conflict between them. ***

While “The Jazz Singer” won’t ever make the Top 100 AFI films list, Neil Diamond gives a solid, journeyman performance as Yassel. Oliver, on the other hand, hams it up refining the mysterious accent he had used previously “The Marathon Man” except this time he throws in a few Yiddish phrases to make his transformation from a German Nazi to a kindly Jewish cantor convincing. It’s a petty bad performance and Olivier looks just as frail as he did in previous films bringing none of the energy the part needed. The real problem with the film is the badly written and dated script. Sure there are references that jazz up (no pun intended) and suggest it was made in 1980 and not in 1929 but they’re references nothing more. The characters are caricatures and, really, I can’t Oliier for his performance because he honestly doesn’t have much to work with here. ---

“The Jazz Singer: 25th Anniversary Edition” looks good in this DVD transfer. I never saw the film in theaters but believe that the grainy muted look of the film probably existed in the original theatrical version as well. The grain that crops up has less to do with the transfer than the stock and light conditions the film was shot in. The soundtrack is the real highlight with DTS 6.1-ES and Dolby Digital Surround EX remixes giving the music a bold, punchy sound that will provide a nice workout for home theater systems. The soundtrack originally produced by The Band’s Robbie Robertson has nice warmth and tremendous presence. ---

We get the original theatrical trailer of the film, a TV spot for the film and a gallery featuring the original poster and stills. We also have the Talent Biographies that were a highlight of some of the other Anchor Bay releases such as “Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry” (a better film by the way with no pretenses and one hell of a conclusion but, sadly, no Neil Diamond soundtrack). It would have been interesting to get together the surviving cast and crew (and maybe even Robbie Robertson) to discuss the film’s shortcomings and Robertson’s approach to producing Diamond in the studio for the soundtrack. ---

Better than watching a car crash but not quite as satisfying as a bad game of golf, “The Jazz Singer” was bashed when it came out. While it certainly has some merit, it’ll never be a threat to “The Godfather” or even “Shark Boy and Lava Girl”. Anchor Bay does their usual professional job with a handful of good features although a featurette on the troubled film’s history would have been great.