Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Michael_Elliott King of Jazz (1930) *** (out of 4)Once THE JAZZ SINGER was released to extreme box office numbers, every major studio was turning to sound pictures and the Musical was the most popular genre. The revue picture is something that every studio was doing and the likes of MGM and Warner were showing off their biggest stars. Universal went all out with KING OF JAZZ and based all of the vignettes about musician Paul Whiteman.KING OF JAZZ is an extremely uneven film and for the most part I'm not certain that I'd call it a good one. There's no question that there are countless flaws with the film but at the same time you really have to take your hat off to Universal for doing something so over-the-top and rather crazy. The studio threw a lot of money at the production but it turned out to be a pretty big flop at the box office and many think it killed off the revue film.As I said, there are certainly a lot of flaws with the picture including the fact that several of the vignettes just don't work but that's to be expected when you've got a film built like this. We start off with an animated number and from here we get to various musical acts. Out of all of the acts in the picture I'd say John Boles "It Happened in Monterey" was the best and most entertaining as the actor did a good job with the song and we also got some extremely great camerawork during this sequence including some crane shots that look terrific.I should probably mention that the film was shot in 2-strip Technicolor, which is one of the biggest reasons to watch it. The colors really do leap off the screen and this is especially true for the terrific costumes that are seen in the film. There are so many different costumes and there's not a single one that doesn't look fantastic. The same could be said about the sets, which are quite large and beautiful to see and this is especially true for the final act.Again, there are certainly flaws in the picture as not every act works and I'd also argue that Whiteman wasn't the most entertaining Jazz figure that I've seen from these older films. The music numbers are also hit and miss but with all of that being said, the main reason to watch this is for the Technicolor as well as the wonderful costumes and sets.

calvinnme 1930's King of Jazz is the strangest and most surreal of the early sound cycle of movie studio revues. Very few films shot completely in two-strip Technicolor survive - this is one of them. Warner Bros. probably made the most all-Technicolor films in the early sound era, but since most of them were Vitaphone the films have long since been lost in most cases.The 1929 and 1930 early sound revues were made by the studios primarily to showcase their talent in an all-talking setting. MGM's "Hollywood Revue of 1929" started the cycle, and did a pretty good job. However, other studios lost sight of the goal and the revues that followed were often clumsily put together and didn't even showcase talent that belonged to the studio."The King of Jazz" is a surprise not only because it holds up so well with time, but because it is such a non-typical product for Universal Studios of that era. Universal of the 20's and 30's mainly made westerns for rural moviegoers with an occasional prestige picture and they were beginning to dabble in the horror genre for which the studio is most remembered. However, at this time they were also known for their thrift, which went out the window when they made this film. The film starts out with a cartoon showing how Paul Whiteman - who called himself The King of Jazz - discovered Jazz. What follows are a sequence of musical and comedy routines. This film doesn't make the mistake of trying to sew the numbers together with some maudlin backstage melodrama. It simply presents the numbers in sequence. Most of the talent here is not under long-term contract to Universal. Laura LaPlante is one of the rare exceptions to that rule. The musical numbers are a delight and it is great to see Bing Crosby at the very beginning of his career. The Brox Sisters light up this film just as they did MGM's revue with "Singin in the Rain". The whole thing is so lively and done with with such innovation and energy considering the static camera of the early talkie era that I can't believe Universal has never thought to put this on DVD. They made this one great musical and didn't really make another one until 1936's "Showboat".My favorite number is "Song of the Dawn" featuring handsome John Boles with his piercing eyes in close up during most of the number belting out a song with that wonderful tenor voice of his. The most memorable number though has got to be "Happy Feet" with dancing shoes and the Sisters G as singing heads in a shoebox. This number also has the aptly named Al "Rubber Legs" Norman showing us the moon dance 28 years before Michael Jackson was even born. Highly recommended for the fun of it all.

MartinHafer Back in the day, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra were big...almost Elvis big. Today, practically no one has heard of the guy though one of his band's soloists, Bing Crosby, went on to super-stardom. But you can tell Whiteman and his band was quite the powerhouse when you see this 1930 film and put it in perspective compared to other Hollywood films from the same year. First, very, very few films had any color in them in 1930 and when they did have Two-Color Technicolor, it was used for only a few minutes at a time--such as for big production numbers. Yet, amazingly, this film is in Two- Color Technicolor for the entire movie--a very, very expensive proposition! Second, the sets and costumes are incredibly lavish and look amazing. The bridal-style dresses in one of the numbers is just eye-popping! Third, the cinematography and sound are state of the art. Watching the tiny people climbing out of the handbag is STILL a technically amazing scene...and for 1930 it's really astonishing. As far as the story goes, there is none. The film consists of one production number after another as well as a few comedy sketches and animations. This isn't a complaint...but it also makes it one of the most unusual films of all time. It's not really a musical in a traditional sense--more a record of a bygone era and acts. Some of the skits or musical numbers are pretty dated and haven't aged too well, some are still impressive. In many ways, this film is more something for film historians than the average viewer. Fortunately, the National Film Preservation Board recognized this as well and a pristine (or at least as close to pristine as possible) copy is being held by them for posterity. Well worth seeing and really NOT a film I could easily score. It's a wonderful artifact but might be tough viewing for some viewers.

mikequinlan61 Fortunately, the history of jazz was little troubled by this farcical musical travesty. The one black person... (did you know that it was people of color who created Jazz, innovated and sustained it decade after decade only to be constantly supplanted by less talented and creative whites who popularized their music and made millions off it?)... who appears is a cute little girl sitting on the lap of Paul White-Man, the purported king of jazz in a brief segment. The only jazzy number in the film is 'Happy Shoes' with the entire remainder of the film devoted to middle of the road popular schmaltz music and pseudo-classical Gershwin. That said, the film, however distasteful, dated and unfunny, is in some ways an important historical predecessor of the Hollywood musicals to come.I had read that the production numbers were something to see, but by the end I no longer cared. Not so hot. Comedy, very poor. Female vocals, very poor. White-man and his vaudevillians, crap. Bing Crosby, as usual, quite good.