Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

MartinHafer Wow, is this an unusual film! Not only is it about how wonderful it is to be a bum, but there also is a song that is anti-Bolshevik! For the life of me, I can't think of another film with themes like this!! Unlike most musicals, most of the dialog is actually sung--some very well and some definitely not! While this might sound like a good thing, it was NOT--especially when seen today. It's all very, very hard to enjoy as there aren't any particularly memorable songs and a little of this goes a very long way! As a result, it's a mildly interesting curio at best--and a film only for Jolson fans (both of them).Despite me not enjoying this film, it is interesting to silent comedy fans like me. Two old-time comedians are in the film--Harry Langdon (a gifted comic who is practically unknown today) and Chester Conklin (of the Keystone Kops and other supporting roles). Look for Langdon as 'Egghead'(the supposed Bolshevik) and Conklin plays 'Sunday' (sporting the familiar mustache but here it's gray--plus he also wears spectacles).

mukava991 A multiplicity of divergent talents including director Lewis Milestone, writers Ben Hecht and S. N. Behrman, composer Richard Rodgers, lyricist Lorenz Hart, along with performers Al Jolson, Chester Conklin and Harry Langdon – all major figures of American popular culture - got together in the darkest days of the Depression to create this eternal oddity, a quasi- musical with a bizarre plot about the an easygoing, charming "bum" (Al Jolson) satisfied with his lot, who as unofficial "mayor" of Central Park presides over the homeless community therein, all the while maintaining a casual friendship with the personable but corrupt Mayor of New York City (Frank Morgan). The rather improbable plot hinges on what happens after Jolson saves the life of, and develops a crush on, a beautiful young woman (Madge Evans), only to discover that she is the mistress of the Mayor himself. Much of the film unfolds in song or spoken rhyme, some brilliant, some merely serviceable, and some rather awkward. In true Milestone fashion, the camera pans and tracks liberally, and we're even treated to a tour de force of precision editing, from close-up to close-up, syllable-by-syllable, of human faces as they sing a song. The "bums" are depicted as a jolly and rather carefree bunch who inhabit a parallel civilization just under the radar of workaday life, sort of a benign version of the criminal underworld in Fritz Lang's "M." It's a romantic vision of homelessness, to be sure, in the spirit of the song "Old Man of the Mountain" ("his cares are none and he owes no one" … he "sleeps with the stars for a tent" and "God charges no rent"). Harry Langdon, the least remembered of the Big Four funnymen of 20's silents (Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd being the others), here plays a speaking role as a Marxist garbage collector and comes across as an opinionated Stan Laurel but without the slapstick. Another silent comedian, Chester Conklin, is on hand as "Sunday," a horse-and-buggy driver married to battle-ax Louise Carver. Jolson himself has seldom if ever been more appealing on film, never grandstanding or hogging the proceedings (and never given the chance, whether in song or in speech). He is attended throughout by constantly grinning black actor Edgar Connor in a happy-to-be-servile role, made somewhat palatable by occasional non-moronic exchanges of dialogue with Jolson and others.The script by Hecht and Behrman contains the terms "reds," "plutocrats," "socialist," and the like. In Hallelujah's world all money, unless in very small denominations, is a curse. Overall the impression is that of a lighthearted fantasy set in grim reality.

Neil Doyle I must take exception to all the favorable comments for this AL JOLSON movie, HALLELUJAH I'M A BUM directed by Lewis Milestone.First of all, Jolson himself is hardly appealing as a screen personality, lacking the looks and charm of a leading man in every conceivable way.He may have been the man immortalized in THE JOLSON STORY by Larry Parks, but as a screen personality he's totally lacking in many ways. His tendency to mug doesn't make him believable as a Central Park bum cavorting with several other equally unappealing characters.Furthermore, it's a musical with two average songs and a script that features musical dialogue--which strangely enough comes from the pen of Rodgers and Hart, both of whom have bit roles.The only good things about the movie are seeing FRANK MORGAN in a relatively straight dramatic role without all of his bumbling excesses, and lovely MADGE EVANS as the woman Jolson and Morgan are in love with through a strange set of circumstances.It took a lot of patience for me to sit through this one. And frankly, I do love musicals--but this was the pits. An oddity if there ever was one. He may have been a great entertainer on the stage, but it's no wonder his film career as a lead was a brief one.

Evan J. Chase The idea of rhythmic dialogue seems strange today, but was a short-lived fad in the early 30s (best example is the 3 Stooges first Columbia short: "Woman Haters")It works well in Halleleujah, I'm a Bum, since rhyming is only done in parts of the picture.This was my first introduction to 30s musicals, and is now released on DVD. The "mistress situation" of the Mayor of New York keeping lovely Madge Evans in an apartment in the same building as his is rather interesting as well. Although a "dud" at the boxoffice in 1933, this picture has developed a cult following over the years. Jolson's starring movie career was over by the late 30's due to his ego, but he still has a major reputation as one of the greatest entertainers in history. This picture is a wonderful example of the wild enthusiasm of Hollywood's early talkie musicals with a moral to the story.