NFR Project: 'King of Jazz' (1930)

NFR Project ‘King of Jazz’

Dir: John Murray Anderson

Scr: Charles MacArthur, Harry Ruskin

Pho: Jerome Ash, Hal Mohr, Ray Rennahan

Ed: Robert Carlisle

Premiere: April 19, 1930

98 min.

All-talking! All-singing! All color!

No expense was spared to craft King of Jazz. With the advent of sound and two-strip (red and green) Technicolor, the chance to make a cinema spectacular was finally possible. All the major studios had issued music-filled big-budget films in the years following The Jazz Singer, and now Universal was ready to take the plunge.

The film centers of the performances of Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Whiteman, a Denver boy who specialized in “sweet” jazz, that is, mellow and unthreatening jazz-inflected music, was marketed as the “King of Jazz,” especially in the wake of his commissioning George Gershwin to write the famous classical/jazz hybrid Rhapsody in Blue in 1924. Whiteman’s signature bulk and pencil-thin moustache were known across the country.

Whiteman had quite a say in the production. He replaced the original director, Paul Fejos, with John Murray Anderson, a stage veteran for whom this would be his first film. Instead of playing live, Whiteman insisted on pre-recording all his numbers and then having his band mime along to them during the actual filming, to ensure quality sound.

The result is a film that is not technically ambitious, but that comes very close to being a filmed recreation of the kind of variety show staged on Broadway in the early years of the 20^th century, shows such as the Ziegfeld Follies, George White’s Scandals, and Earl Carroll’s Vanities. Big musical numbers alternate with smaller specialty numbers, an animated sequence (the first color movie animation) and brief, humorous sketches. Lavish costumes and set decoration mark the work.

Among the entertainers featured is Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys singing trio, one of whom was Big Crosby, in his first film appearance. Crosby was meant to have a larger part in the film, but he got into a drunk driving accident during filming, severely injuring a passenger. Unrepentant in front of the judge, he was sentenced to 60 days in jail. They shot around him.

The film did not perform all that well at the box office. It turns out that movie audiences were burned out on musical extravaganzas, even those filmed in color. It must also be said that the film is not gripping. The music and dance numbers clank clumsily across the stage, the comedic bits are stale, and the pacing is slothful.

The end product is designed to appeal to all ages, so it takes no chances, aside from a few risqué jokes in the blackout sequences. Whiteman’s band, was, appropriately, vanilla, all white – musical integration would have to wait for Benny Goodman to come along and change things with his insistence of putting the best musicians, black and white, together on stage.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Little Caesar.