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The Jolson Story

The Jolson Story

List Price: $19.94
Your Price: $17.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Americana! Here it is! You'll love it!
Review: I was introduced to Al Jolson by an old friend on a warm summer's day and was taken by the easy going,tempo.Larry Parks is EXCELLENT! I thought that he was Al Jolson! He has it! ,Or should I say Asa Yolson has it! This guy is contagious! You will Love the Music! ThankYou!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: great music lousy Jolson
Review: I watched both The Jolson Story and Jolson sings again over the week-end, I just never get bored with watching them, Larry Parks is incredible, and the voice of Al Jolson , well what can you say. He was without a doubt the greatest entertainer of all time and there has yet to come along anybody who can take that title away from him. I think what the McCarthy investigations did to Larry Parks was unforgiveable, this man was an incredible actor, and if nothing else he will be long remembered for his oscar winning performance in both the Jolson movies. I also wish they would come out with a DVD. I am trying to find the CD of the soundtracks of both films, if anybody knows where I can get these please email me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Movie
Review: I watched both The Jolson Story and Jolson sings again over the week-end, I just never get bored with watching them, Larry Parks is incredible, and the voice of Al Jolson , well what can you say. He was without a doubt the greatest entertainer of all time and there has yet to come along anybody who can take that title away from him. I think what the McCarthy investigations did to Larry Parks was unforgiveable, this man was an incredible actor, and if nothing else he will be long remembered for his oscar winning performance in both the Jolson movies. I also wish they would come out with a DVD. I am trying to find the CD of the soundtracks of both films, if anybody knows where I can get these please email me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: On DVD Please!
Review: I would love to see this on DVD so we could add it to out collection!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE WAY MOVIES USE TO BE
Review: I"M A MAN OF FEW WORDS WHEN IT COMES TO THIS MOVIE, THE MOVIE
IS NOTHING SHORT OF WONDERFUL ENTERTAINMENT. THERE ARE ALOT OF
DISCREPANCIES ABOUT TRUTHS DATES AND ACTUAL HAPPENINGS, HOWEVER
THE MOVIE IS MAGIC, IT WILL TAKE YOU BACK TO A TIME OF INNOCENCE
AND WHEN AMERICA TRULY HAD GREAT ENTERTAINMENT, SO SIT BACK GRAB THE POPCORN AND BE PREPARED TO TRULY ENJOY THIS MOVIE WHICH I"M SURE WILL LEAVE YOU HUMMING SOME OF THE WONDERFUL SONGS,AND LONGING TO CRANK UP THE DVD PLAYER AND WATCH IT AGAIN AND AGAIN

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Larry Parks IS Jolson;"
Review: If you're a Jolson fan, you will love this movie. The acting by Parks with Jolson's singing is a classic. The movie will evoke memories of nostalgia of what Broadway and musical films were like in their "heyday." The movie will stay with you!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great movie with a great actor
Review: It has been several years since I,ve seen this movie and it was great. Larry Parks did a great job of acting the part. I have been looking for this video for sometime now and finally found it. I have been wanting to see it again. Thanks. Roger A. Hyndman

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Finally, my favorite movie on DVD
Review: Like another reviewer, I have literally seen this movie over a hundred times. I grew up watching this movie on TV every time it came on. The Laserdisc release was very good. I am happy to report that the DVD transfer is very nice. The packaging is awful and would lead you to believe this is one of those throwaway bargin DVDs, but the package does indicate the re-mastering was done in high definition. The sound indicates mono, which most of the movie is, but it is really the stereo version of the movie which as a few pans of some sound effects taken from the original mono release. For Jolson Story fans, I do not need to sell on this, but for those who have never heard Al Jolson, this is the best way to hear him.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Why isn't this on DVD (yet)? WELL, IT FINALLY IS!!
Review: THE JOLSON STORY is one of the greatest musicals of all time! Jolson's story (based on fact, but fictionalized), his actual singing and Larry Parks' acting and lip-synching are beyond compare!

I think it's a shame that every junky new movie is put on DVD and we have to wait for a classic like this to come out.

THAT'S WHAT I HAD WRITTEN, BUT ALAS, IT'S ON DVD EFFECTIVE 10/21/03!
Sound is good and picture is good, but not excellent. There are dirt flicks during the movie, especially when Young Al is in the audience singing to his future manager (William Demarest). Houw could this have been digitally mastered? Also, there is NO TRAILER and NO EXTRAS! The cover looks awful! But ... it's on DVD!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The greatest Hollywood film musical biography ever
Review: The young Asa Yoelson (Scotty Beckett) runs away from home to join Steve Martin (William Demarest) in vaudeville against the wishes of his parents. They find him and realising how much he wants to get into show business they reluctantly agree for him to join Martin on tour. As he grows up he changes his name to Al Jolson (now played by Larry Parks) and becomes a big Broadway star. He meets Julie Benson (Evelyn Keyes) and they get married. However, all that Jolson really cares about is to get in front of an audience and sing so his marriage suffers because of it. He stars in one successful Broadway show after another and then is invited to go to Hollywood to take the lead in the first ever talking picture "The Jazz Singer". In later years his popularity declines and he finds it harder to get work. He does in fact make a sensational comeback and is in even bigger demand than ever which was portrayed in the sequel "Jolson Sings Again".

When I first saw "The Jolson Story" I had never heard of its star Larry Parks although I had bought a few Jolson records prior to seeing the film. Parks gave a magnificent portrayal but apart from appearing in "Jolson Sings Again" three years later he made very few films after that due to the McCarthy communist "witch hunt" which was a shame.

Some favourite lines from the film:

William Demarest: "Give that boy a spotlight!".

Tamara Shayne (to Ludwig Donath): "Papa, Asa isn't Asa any more!".

Larry Parks (to orchestra leader): "Oscar, what are you doing with that phone - this is no time to call up women!".

Parks (to audience in theatre): "Settle back folks - you ain't heard nothin' yet!".

Parks (to audience in theatre): "I'm going into what they call talking pictures - don't know what's going to happen to me - but er, if I come back you'll let me - won't you?".

"The Jolson Story" is one of those rare movies that you can enjoy over and over again and has a high place in my Top Ten films of all time. Wonderful acting, superb colour, fascinating story (even though not entirely accurate), and how about those memorable old songs - "California Here I Come", "April Showers", "Swanee", "Rockabye Your Baby", "Robert E. Lee", "Mammy", "You Made Me Love You", "I'm Sitting On Top of the World", "About a Quarter to Nine", etc. This film is worth seeing just to hear the real Al Jolson belting out the songs that made him famous. Jolson was often billed as "the world's greatest entertainer" and I'm sure that was a title well deserved. Clive Roberts.


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