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Jolson Sings Again
Opening titles inform viewers that Jolson Sings Again is, like a Paul Harvey radio piece, "the rest of the story." At the end of The Jolson Story, Ruby Keeler . . . er, that is, Julie Benson, has walked out on Al (Larry Parks) who immediately resumes his showbiz career by starring in a new Broadway show, You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet. Something's missing from his life, however, and Jolson retires yet again, forsaking singing all together. He opts to spend his days traveling the world with luscious dames at his side while buying race horses and financing the careers of prize fighters. This comes as a great disappointment to Al's father (Ludwig Donath), but then manager Steve Martin (William Demarest) talks Al into entertaining the troops as America enters the Second World War. After Al contracts malaria and recovers in a stateside hospital, he marries his pretty nurse, Erle Galbraith (renamed Ellen Clark for the film, and played by a pre-"Perry Mason" Barbara Hale). But as the war winds down Jolson is all but forgotten by the public until an old Jolson fan-turned-Hollywood producer, Ralph Bryant (Myron McCormick), wants to tell Al's life story in a major motion picture for Columbia!
It's this last third of Jolson Sings Again that offers its most entertaining, and certainly most bizarre moments. Larry Parks, playing Larry Parks, pretends to be Al Jolson in front of Al Jolson, also played by Larry Parks. (There are, however, no scenes of William Demarest's Steve Martin meeting William Demarest, alas.) Many facets of the production of The Jolson Story are shown, from tests of Parks's lip-synching to its successful sneak preview. The film within the film aspect of these scenes also offer a fairly detailed look at Columbia's scoring stages, its Technicolor cameras, etc., so film buffs take note.
More than anything else, it's these scenes that best illustrate the desperation on the part of the screenwriters in coming up with something new for Jolson Sings Again. Once again, the film plays fast and loose with the real facts on Jolson's life. In some ways Jolson Sings Again is even more outrageous. Prior to Al's big revival with The Jolson Story, most of the film portrays the great entertainer as a forgotten man. Nobody wants him, not radio, not the movies, not Broadway – he's washed up as far as they're concerned. Steve has to beg the organizers of a celebrity-packed benefit to let Jolson perform, and Al hits bottom when, in a long list of names on the program, he's lumped in with "…and Many Others." All this is, of course, absurd. Though Jolson's style had become somewhat passé in the world of big band swing music, Jolson remained very much in the public eye throughout the 1940s. Another problem is the film depicts Jolson's late career in a vacuum. Even during the story's two big benefit scenes, we never see any other celebrities at all. There's an oblique reference to Bing Crosby early in the film (which absurdly suggests Bing stole Jolson's fans away – around 1940!), but more interaction with the showbiz world, and more time outside Jolson's inner circle clearly would have helped.
This basic conceit also hurts the film as entertainment. Jolson's tireless energy and need to perform was the driving force behind The Jolson Story, but Jolson Sings Again is mostly Al whining that nobody wants him. Jolson's wartime tour seems less the act of a generous man trying to help his country than an old ham desperate for an audience to play to.
Reportedly Jolson wanted to play himself in both films, and while he was too old for The Jolson Story, he would have been perfect for Jolson Sings Again. Parks is less convincing as a 60-year-old Jolson, and had Al played himself it would have given the Jolson Story scenes with Parks a neat payoff instead the other-dimensional flavor it now has.
Jolson Sings Again was directed by Henry Levin, replacing Alfred E. Green, but stylistically the pictures are identical, and Levin seems to have studied the original very carefully judging by its uncanny visual similarities. Most of the original cast returns, and the film plays very much like the second half of one large film.
Video & Audio
Jolson Sings Again is half a notch below its predecessor, transfer-wise. Though it generally looks fine in its full-frame transfer, the Technicolor hues don't pop out of the screen the way they did in The Jolson Story. The mono sound is fine and both English and Japanese subtitles are offered. The only Extras are trailers for a couple of Columbia titles, but neither Jolson picture. Footage exists of the real Jolson performing several of his greatest songs that was either a screen test or, more likely, reference footage shot for Parks's choreography. It would have been nice to have had this material included on either DVD, but perhaps there were rights issues with the footage.
Parting Thoughts
Jolson Sings Again is like Volume 2 of a Greatest Hits album. The songs aren't bad, just second tier. The story of Al Jolson, at least the Hollywood-ized interpretation of it, was pretty much told in The Jolson Story rendering Jolson Sings Again just a retread. But it is fun to see these characters once again, and as Myron McCormick's producer says of Jolson late in the picture, "It's amazing how he can still get you with a corny old song like that."
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