King of Jazz (1930)

Winner of 1 Academy Award:

Best Art Direction

Herman Rosse

It won 1 Oscar out of a total of 1 nomination in 1929-30.


King of Jazz is the self-ascribed nickname for the star of this musical revue, which is presented in the device of "Paul Whiteman's Scrap Book."  Throughout, melodies and anecdotes from Paul Whiteman and His Band are performed for the entertainment of audiences


The film was shot entirely with the two-color Technicolor process, but ingenuously developed methods in bringing the color blue to the silver screen for its "Rhapsody in Blue" number.

It also features the first animated Technicolor segment.  In this particular part of the film, there is even an appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - the Walt Disney character that famously preceded his iconic Mickey Mouse.  A separate black-and-white sound cartoon - "My Pal Paul" - was released as a promotion for the film that also prominently featured Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as well as songs from the movie.

In yet another pioneering effort, this movie would also become the first feature film to have an entirely prerecorded soundtrack, which Paul Whiteman insisted upon in order to create an optimal sound quality.

Unfortunately, the picture would see little commercial success due to the over-saturation of movie-musicals and revues that had flooded the market following the advent of sound films, coupled with the early days of the Great Depression.  Paul Whiteman's radio program would be cancelled as a result of this, forcing him to layoff many of his band members and reduce the salaries of those band members he was able to retain.

In addition to this, the newly enforced censorship code also demanded that re-releases cut approximately twelve minutes of material that was deemed unsuitable.  Though prints of the uncensored film still survive, the censored version is what was made available upon its videocassette release.


Editorial:

While there seems to be an enthusiasm from the talent on hand (and there is a great deal of it), this does operate as pretty standard fare.  Offerings of various musical numbers, vaudeville acts and sketches are broad in nature and seem awfully disconnected.  But, with that, this feature just happened to pioneer some things that are taken for granted today.  Given the mediocrity of the movie itself mixed with genius artistry, it makes complete sense that audiences were unwilling to support it in the way that the industry did.

Score  |  05/10  |  This motion picture may be worth watching.