1st watched 8/20/2005 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Crosland, Alan): Sappy introduction to sound from Warner Brothers and Al Jolson. The movie made a lot of money for the studio and gave people the first opportunity to see what sound could be like in the movies. There was actually only one talking scene with sound but also a few musical performances by Jolson and Cantor Josef Rosenblatt. These scenes in itself were monumental to film and the movie has a part in the world of cinema because of this. As for the movie, it's very heavy-laden with sappiness and schmaltz as the son of the Cantor has to decide between singing for the church or taking his show on the road to Broadway. It takes a long long time for him to make a decision and the viewers can't help but yell back at the screen, "Come on just make up your mind one way or the other, PLEASE!!." The religious family lays on the guilt as his father becomes ill, and the girlfriend and Broadway show director lay their side of the argument on heavy as well. As an entertainment piece, it's nice to see Jolson especially doing his classic "Mamy" near the end but the entire movie would have been better as a video collection. Oops, I guess we'd have to wait another half a decade or so for that and by then both of the singers from this movie were long gone, too bad it would have at least been interesting.. The movie made a lot of money for the studio and gave people the first opportunity to see what sound could be like in the movies. There was actually only one talking scene with sound but also a few musical performances by Jolson and Cantor Josef Rosenblatt. These scenes in itself were monumental to film and the movie has a part in the world of cinema because of this. As for the movie, it's very heavy-laden with sappiness and schmaltz as the son of the Cantor has to decide between singing for the church or taking his show on the road to Broadway. It takes a long long time for him to make a decision and the viewers can't help but yell back at the screen, "Come on just make up your mind one way or the other, PLEASE!!." The religious family lays on the guilt as his father becomes ill, and the girlfriend and Broadway show director lay their side of the argument on heavy as well. As an entertainment piece, it's nice to see Jolson especially doing his classic "Mamy" near the end but the entire movie would have been better as a video collection. Oops, I guess we'd have to wait another half a decade or so for that and by then both of the singers from this movie were long gone, too bad it would have at least been interesting.