There was no bigger star in cinema during the transition from silents to sound than singer Al Jolson. He was the actor who introduced the first lengthy talking sequence in a major feature film in October 1927's "The Jazz Singer." His follow-up a year later, 1928's "The Singing Fool," solidified his popularity on the screen. That movie collected $6 million in its coffer, a figure Warner Brothers didn't even come close until its 1941 "Sergeant York." So appreciative the studio was with Jolson's success Warners signed him to one of the highest Hollywood salaries at the time.
His next movie, August 1929 "Say It With Songs," was the first all-talking feature for Jolson. The previous two were part-talkies with selected songs and accompanying musical soundtracks. The buzz before its premier was since it was a Jolson film, it must be really, really good.
The adage of a movie is only as good as its script holds true with "Say It With Songs." In the screenplay written by future studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck along with two others, Jolson plays a radio entertainer who accidentally kills the station's owner for making advances on his wife. He's sent to jail, where he looks to divorce his wife. Once out of prison, he witnesses his young four-year-old son (David Lee) hit by a car, paralyzing him. A pretty bleak melodrama whose chirpy Jolson personality was at odds.
The release of the movie in major cities turned out to be a complete bomb after critics mercilessly skewered it. A reviewer from The New Yorker pegged it as "Even the fantastically happy ending, when the sound of his voice cures the child of aphasia, does not eradicate the general impression of dreary and specious tragedy." Los Angeles theater goers got the word fast that this was a chore to sit through, and immediately stayed away. The Warners Theater in L. A. shut it down after only two days on the screen. Many smaller towns were unaware of the scathing reviews. Because of Jolson's marquee value, "Say It With Songs" still made over $2 million in the nation's theaters, sitting as the sixth best box office returns in 1929. But it proved to be the first flop in Jolson's career.
Warner Brothers learned its lesson. The next Jolson film would be more lighthearted with showbiz as its central focus in 1930's 'Mammy,' in line with the former minstrel singer's personality.
