What is this film?
September 7, 2010 8:30 AM Subscribe
There was a Yiddish film possibly made in New York in or around the late thirties with strikingly similar elements to The Jazz Singer except that it ends with the cantors son singing instead of assimilating into a new society. What was it and is there somewhere online to watch/buy the whole thing?
Best answer: It was called The Cantor's Son. Here's a clip. The National Institute for Jewish Film is selling copies here.
A screening was held in 2008 at Brandeis with a newly restored version:
posted by zarq at 8:40 AM on September 7, 2010
A screening was held in 2008 at Brandeis with a newly restored version:
Details:
The Cantor's Son
Dem Khazns Zundl
USA | 1937 | 90 min | Yiddish with NEW English subtitles
Directors: Ilya Motyleff & Sidney Goldin
New England Premiere
New 35mm Film Restoration by The National Center for Jewish Film
Special Guest: Producer Mrs. Samuel Segal
Moderator: Sharon Pucker Rivo,
National Center for Jewish Film
This toe-tapping Yiddish musical drama marks the screen debut of Moishe Oysher in the title role critic J. Hoberman calls the “anti-Jazz Singer.” Leaving behind his Shtetle Belz for New York's Lower East Side, Sol eventually lands the American dream, becoming a popular singer and radio star. But can he be truly happy turning his back on tradition? Like his film character, Oysher—the son of a cantor—was a matinee idol (“the Jewish Enzio Pinza”) and a celebrated cantor.
World Premiere - Jerusalem Film Festival
USA Premiere - New York Jewish Film Festival, Lincoln Center, New York
posted by zarq at 8:40 AM on September 7, 2010
Unless $16 is going to break the bank, I'd go with zarq's version over the one I linked you to. Especially if you don't speak Yiddish.
posted by griphus at 8:44 AM on September 7, 2010
posted by griphus at 8:44 AM on September 7, 2010
Response by poster: I imdb'd Moishe Oysher and it looks like I mixed it up with Overture to Glory in my head, no wonder 'opera version of the jazz singer' wasn't getting me anywhere. Maybe it was a double feature one day. Thanks very much! I'd never have guessed at it.
posted by shinybaum at 8:50 AM on September 7, 2010
posted by shinybaum at 8:50 AM on September 7, 2010
addendum: SCTV did a skit based on this as well. "The Jazz Singer with Al Jarreau"
posted by edgeways at 11:49 AM on September 7, 2010
posted by edgeways at 11:49 AM on September 7, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by griphus at 8:35 AM on September 7, 2010