One Hour With You (UCLA sepiatone print)

Ernst Lubitsch assisted by George Cukor: One Hour with You (US 1932). Jeanette MacDonald (Colette Bertier) and Maurice Chevalier (Dr. André Bertier). "What a little thing like a wedding ring can do". Witty? Yes. Elegant? Yes. Funny? Yes. Stupid? Yes. And above all full of generosity and tenderness.

Hetki sinun kanssasi / En timme med dig. US © 1932 Paramount. P+D: Ernst Lubitsch, assisted by George Cukor. SC: Samson Raphaelson – based on the play Nur ein Traum (1909) by Lothar Schmidt. DP: Victor Milner. AD: Hans Dreier, A.E. Freudeman. COST: Travis Banton. M: Oscar Straus. Songs: "Police Number," "We Will Always Be Sweethearts" and "Oh! that Mitzi!" music by Oscar Straus, lyrics by Leo Robin; "One Hour with You," "Three Times a Day," "What Would You Do?" "What a Little Thing Like a Wedding Ring Can Do" and "It Was Only a Dream Kiss," music by Richard A. Whiting, lyrics by Leo Robin. Starring Maurice Chevalier (Dr. André Bertier), Jeanette MacDonald (Colette Bertier), Genevieve Tobin (Mitzi Olivier), Roland Young (Prof. Olivier), Charlie Ruggles (Adolph). 85 min. A UCLA restored colour toned print viewed at Finnish Film Archive, Orion, Helsinki, 1 October 2008. – The delightful romantic comedy revisited. The more often I see this the more I regard this as one of the best Lubitsch films, top of his game. Much of the dialogue is in verse. Much of Chevalier's talk is confidential dialogue with us, the audience. Peter von Bagh called this, only half-jokingly, "a Brechtian film". The songs are warm and humoristic, performed with cordial joy. A film of love.

The Jazz Singer (1927)

016110 / G / US / 1927 / Crosland, Alan / / music

Jazz Singer, The / Jazzlaulaja. PC: Warner Bros. EX: Jack Warner. D: Alan Crosland. Based on the play by Samson Raphaelson and his short story ”Day of Atonement”. Music performed by the Vitaphone Orchestra. CAST: Al Jolson (Jakob Rabinowitz / Jack Robin), Eugenie Besserer (Mammy - Sara Rabinowitz), Warner Oland (Cantor Rabinowitz), May McAvoy (Mary Dale), Cantor Josef Rosenblatt. 89’. 1,2. Originally a silent film with sound on disc. The Israeli Film Archive print screened had sound on film. Pordenone, Cinema Verdi, Saturday 18 October 1997. *** 70th Anniversary Celebration. Bad direction, bad acting, and bad camerawork. Even Al Jolson does not help. Pop dinosaurs don’t project in films even now in the age of Madonna, and that curse started with Jolson: charisma magnetic to a huge live audience does not transfer automatically to a great film performance. I don’t even like Jolson’s songs, although I’d love to see a feature-length concert documentary of him. He is perhaps even after Elvis and The Beatles the most legendary performer of the century. To sum up, here is a rare instance where a magnificent screenplay shines through a clumsy mise-en-scene. The story is strong and simple. It is the story of popular culture: the reconciliation of the sacred and the profane. ”In show business we have our own religion, too”. The calling of show business can also be holy. Jack says that performing is now more important to him than anything else. The Jazz Singer is one of the most blatant Oedipal stories of the screen. Challenging his father, disowned by him, but never forgotten by mother, Jakob / Jack wanders through the world searching for his soul. Jakie’s first song is dedicated to ”Mother Divine”. ”He is not my boy anymore. He belongs to the whole world now”, says the mother crying in the audience. The father falls on his deathbed, and on Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, Jack takes his place singing the ”Kol Nidre”. The father’s ghost blesses the son and vanishes. The scene is one of the most electrifying in film history. Musically, it’s Jolson’s best in the film. The other religious performances are great, as well, especially that of Cantor Josef Rosenblatt.