Al Jolson

Swanee River (1939)

Cast: Al Jolson Don Ameche Darryl F. Zanuck Felix Bressart Andrea Leeds   

Tags: Biopic Musical 

Length: 84min

This musical presents a romantic and sanitized biography of distinguished American songwriter Stephen Foster. The story begins with the romance between Foster (Don Ameche) and a pretty southern belle and sets up a home in Kentucky--actually the real...

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The Singing Kid (1936)

Cast: Al Jolson Allen Jenkins Edward Everett Horton William Keighley Lyle Talbot   

Tags: Musical 

Length: 85min

Strictly for Al Jolson's most fervent fans, The Singing Kid casts Jolie as neurotic Broadway star Al Jackson. Facing professional ruin when he loses his voice, Al heads to the country to regain his vocal timbre and to get his head back together. While...

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Rose of Washington Square (1939)

Cast: Al Jolson Tyrone Power Darryl F. Zanuck Alice Faye William Frawley   

Tags: Musical Romance Showbiz Drama Musical Film a Clef 

Length: 86min

This barely-disguised portrait of singer Fanny Brice led to Brice's lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for defamation of character, a case which was settled out of court. Alice Faye plays Rose Sargent, a New York singer of the 1920s who falls for...

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Go into Your Dance (1935)

Cast: Al Jolson Ruby Keeler Patsy Kelly Barton MacLane Helen Morgan   

Tags: Musical Drama Musical 

Length: 89min

Broadway legend Al Jolson and his second wife Ruby Keeler costarred in this thin backstage musical. In keeping with Jolson's earlier starring films, the plotline is melodramatic to the point of risibility. Jolson plays an irresponsible performer whose...

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Wonder Bar (1934)

Cast: Al Jolson Busby Berkeley Dick Powell Dolores Del Rio Ricardo Cortez   

Tags: Musical Drama Musical Comedy Romance Backstage Musical 

Length: 84min

Based on Al Jolson's 1931 Broadway hit, Wonder Bar transposes the "Grand Hotel" formula to a lavish nightclub in Paris' Montmartre district. Presiding over the evening's entertainment is manager-emcee Al Wonder (Jolson), who after greeting his guests...

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Big Boy (1930)

Cast: Al Jolson Alan Crosland Ralph Dawson Lloyd Hughes Louise Closser Hale   

Tags: Comedy Musical 

Length: 68min

Big Boy may well be the closest a modern audience will ever come to seeing what a genuine Al Jolson Broadway musical looked like. Based on his 1925 stage hit, the film casts Jolson in the blackface role of Gus, a stableboy at a moss-covered Southern...

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Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933)

Cast: Al Jolson Frank Morgan Lewis Milestone Harry Langdon Madge Evans   

Tags: Musical Romance Comedy Musical Romance 

Length: 83min

Al Jolson's "comeback" picture Hallelujah, I'm a Bum is an offbeat Depression-era concoction with script by Ben Hecht and S.N. Behrmann and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Jolson plays a genial hobo who wanders happily around...

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Say It with Songs (1929)

Cast: Al Jolson Fred Kohler Lloyd Bacon Holmes Herbert Marian Nixon   

Tags: Musical 

Length: 95min

On the strength of his previous hits The Jazz Singer (1927) and The Singing Fool (1928), Al Jolson was Hollywood's hottest star in 1929. Jolson's cinematic offering for that year was Say It With Songs, a characteristic blend of music, comedy and...

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Mammy (1930)

Cast: Michael Curtiz Al Jolson Irving Berlin Louise Dresser Hobart Bosworth   

Tags: Melodrama Drama 

Length: 84min

Mammy features Al Jolson as the star of a travelling minstrel show, appearing in a small Southern town. Jolson falls in love with an actress in the troupe (Lois Moran), but she loves another. One of Jolson's fellow minstrels (Lowell Sherman) is shot...

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