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| Lewis Milestone: Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (US 1933). Edgar Connor (Acorn), Al Jolson (Bumper). |
Pummien kuningas.
US © 1933 Feature Productions, Inc. Prod.: Joseph M. Schenck per Feature Productions, Inc.
Director: Lewis Milestone. Sog.: Ben Hecht. Scen.: S. N. Behrman. F.: Lucien N. Andriot. M.: Duncan Mansfield. Mus.: Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart. Scgf.: Richard Day. Int.: Al Jolson (Bumper), Madge Evans (June Marcher), Frank Morgan (mayor John Hastings), Harry Langdon (Egghead), Chester Conklin (Sunday), Tyler Brooke (mayor’s secretary), Tammany Young (Orlando), Bert Roach (John).
Loc: New York City.
82 min
US premiere: 3 Feb 1933 – United Artists
Telecast in Finland: 16 Oct 1998 and 9 Feb 1999 Yle TV1.
35 mm print from BFI National Archive.
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2025: Lewis Milestone: of Wars and Men.
Introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht.
Viewed with e-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti Londra at Cinema Jolly, 21 June 2025.
Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna 2025): "A proletarian musical if there ever was one – or, if not, certainly an anti-capitalist film – told through songs and rhyming dialogue. Conceived as a vehicle for singer and actor Al Jolson, the film showcases one of his most indelible screen performances. He plays Bumper, a homeless, carefree “mayor” of Central Park during the Great Depression. Bumper lives among a dignified entourage of rough sleepers (including silent comedian Harry Langdon as a communist) and enjoys a cordial relationship with New York’s real mayor (played by Frank Morgan). When Morgan’s girlfriend attempts suicide after a misunderstanding, Bumper saves her and, unaware of her true identity, falls for her. Amnesiac, she later regains her memory and, in a poignant reversal of City Lights, not only fails to recognise her saviour but finds him pathetic. Bumper then returns to the park to be a bum again."
"The production of Hallelujah, I’m a Bum was troubled from the start. Director Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast began the project but left shortly after filming commenced. Chester Erskine took over but delivered a version so poorly received in previews that producer Joseph Schenck discarded it entirely. Schenck then brought in Lewis Milestone to start from scratch."
"Milestone shot the film intensively over three weeks, even as scripts and songs were being written and rehearsed. He enlisted the team of Rodgers and Hart to write new songs that included You Are Too Beautiful, later a jazz standard performed by the likes of Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane."
"The result bears Milestone’s unmistakable stamp in its circular mise-en-scène, exciting tracking shots into the centre of scene to denote cracking under responsibility, and humanising those living on the margins. Yet, it was a commercial failure and ended the film career of Jolson who, angry and hurt, didn’t realise it was a small glory, a film that, remarkably, interweaved elements of avant-garde cinema (and progressive politics) with the delightful traditions of early sound musicals." Ehsan Khoshbakht
IMDb capsule: "A New York tramp (Jolson) falls in love with the mayor's amnesiac girlfriend after rescuing her from a suicide attempt."
AA: I see Lewis Milestone's Hallelujah, I'm a Bum for the first time and also visit a Lewis Milestone retrospective for the first time. We are grateful to Ehsan Khoshbakht for the tribute which is amazing all the way and offers in every show something unusual and unexpected.
In his opening remarks Ehsan stated that Milestone brought us some of the most non-glamorous films in a period of glamour. His oeuvre is hard to categorize, but one hallmark is his red heart, profondo rosso. It powered him all through WWII but landed him in trouble afterwards. In Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, Ehsan singled out the collective approach, the crowded cast, the screen time divided equally.
It is also a significant early musical with social relevance, part of an international trend also blossoming in France (René Clair's early musicals) and Germany (Die 3-Groschen-Oper and Kuhle Wampe).
Most of all, it is an Al Jolson vehicle. At the time, Al Jolson was the greatest superstar ever, incredible, indefatigable and unequalled in gigantic live performances, only matched when Elvis and The Beatles came along. In my humble opinion, although Jolson was also a superstar of the cinema, he never managed to fit his megawatt presence to the screen. He was too big.
With Jolson, Milestone was not more fortunate, perhaps less. Milestone was a great director of men in war, work and crime. But he was not great in comedy, musical or romance. He was not a great director of women.
Al Jolson was a Warner Bros. star, and he made Hallelujah, I'm a Bum in loan for Joseph M. Schenck / Feature Productions, the first movie of three to be released by United Artists.
Hallelujah, I'm Bum premiered on 3 February 1933 and failed at the box office. Three weeks later, Warner Bros. brought to premiere 42nd Street, another Depression musical, an enormous hit that saved the studio from bankruptcy. In my opinion, 42nd Street is also the superior film, of unforgettable desperation and determination. For his next movie, Wonder Bar, still under pre-Code spell, Jolson returned to Warner Bros.
The print was clean and complete but with low contrast.
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