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.

This is a truly enjoyable film to watch if only to see Al Jolson in action, singing his hits like "Swanee", "My Mammy". The close-ups of him singing both in blackface and as he is are truly mesmerising. A pity that the movie wasn't even nominated for Best Picture in 1946, though it did win for Original Score. He may have come across as an egotist who revelled in hugging the spotlight, but for all that his enthusiasm and love of entertaining audiences is simply infectious. I also loved the understanding and supportive attitude of his parents towards his career even though they opposed his entering showbusiness initially. The only reason I rate it a 9 and not a perfect 10 is for the historical inaccuracies it portrays, like the fact that Steve Martin, Al's performing partner and later booking agent didn't really exist (in reality he was a composite of several people involved in Al's career), and that his mother actually died when he was very young but in the film she witnesses his rise to fame and fortune till the end - but then, I have yet to see a movie biopic that remains 100% true to the real life of the person in question. Still, it is a truly memorable and unforgettable film for all.

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?

I bought the DVD and listened with a pair of high-quality headphones. What I thought was going to be average monaural sound turned out to be fantastic stereo surround sound, with the original singing voice of Al Jolson coming across magnificently ..... and all long before Dolby this and Dolby that. I later read somewhere that the stereo treatment may have resulted from a re-release of the film in the 1950's. All I can say is it sounded great and deserved its Oscar win for Best Sound. The color cinematography also deserved its nomination from the Academy. All in all, great acting and story development, even if not completely accurate as a biography. I had only seen Al Jolson in "The Jazz Singer," but Larry Parks seems to have pulled off the mannerisms quite well and exuberantly, too. Watching this interesting film makes it very clear why Al Jolson was so well loved and admired as an entertainer throughout the world. Every young person should see this film in order to appreciate what came before in the world of musical entertainment -- from minstrel shows to vaudeville and the advent of the "talkies."The superb musical numbers "A Quarter To Nine" and "She's A Latin From Manhattan" were actually in the 1935 film "Go Into Your Dance," in which Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler starred together. To my astonishment that film is not available on DVD yet, but apparently can be seen on cable TV via Turner Classic Movies. It would be really interesting to see how close the musical numbers in "The Jolson Story" copied the original treatments in "Go Into Your Dance.""The Jolson Story" seems to end suddenly and rather unexpectedly, and I felt the director and screenwriter should have added a bit more emotion and drama to the climax of having Julie Benson (as Ruby Keeler) walking out on Al Jolson. You have the feeling that you want the film to continue at that point, rather than end. This was perhaps planned that way. The sequel, "Jolson Sings Again," is also an excellent film.