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Cast: Jerry Lewis, Eduard Franz, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Molly Picon, Joey Faye
*Includes Featurette on Restoration and Still Gallery! The groundbreaking physical comedy of Jerry Lewis has earned him the undisputed moniker of The King of Comedy. While the vast majority of Lewis extraordinary body of work is readily available, The Jazz Singer a rare dramatic performance, produced as a special for NBC s Lincoln-Mercury Startime TV series hasn t been seen since its original 1959 airing. Meticulously restored, this DVD includes the B&W kinescope version and an extremely rare video version, one of the earliest surviving examples of a color TV broadcast. True entertainment history from Lewis personal archives.
Jerry Lewis was always a fanatic about having everything he did recorded for his personal library. The Jazz Singer aired on TV in October 1959 on the Lincoln-Mercury Startime Theater show. It was pre-recorded on color video tape and it was then aired. The colored version is part of Jerry's personal collection and it's never been seen since it first aired. There's a featurette on the DVD that has Jerry's son Chris on it talking about the film and his dad so I am not going to go into details on how the footage was found and how it was restored because I think the feature is worth watching instead.
Lewis plays Joseph Rabinowitz, who breaks five generations of family tradition which breaks father's heart who wanted his son to carry on the cantor tradition in the synagogue. Joseph instead leaves home to become a jazz singer and comic, after being gone for 5 years he decides to return home to surprise his dad on his birthday.
At first his father is very happy to see his son thinking he has changed his mind about becoming a cantor but after Joseph tells about about a big break he has gotten in the business his father becomes angry and bans him from their home.
Joseph leaves and begins work on his TV debut until he hears that his father has fallen ill and is on his death bed, Joseph must decide on going on stage or losing his golden opportunity to go and be beside his dying father.
The show itself is more for long time fans of Jerry but it does contain some of his classic humor we all grew to love as well as a good dose of drama. I enjoyed the show but it isn't going to be for everyone. If you're a fan of Jerry then this is a must own for your collection. A piece of his legacy that was long forgotten till now plus, it's a piece of television history as well so be sure to check it out if you're a fan.
Released by Inception Media Group
***** Out Of *****