If you’re a fan of the early talkie period of classic cinema, you will most definitely want to check out the upcoming blu-ray release from Warner Brothers of The Jazz Singer, the film that started it all.
The set won’t be out until January 8, but in the meantime the studio has released details of the set to get our mouth’s watering.
- Audio commentary by film historians Ron Hutchinson (founder of The Vitaphone Project) and Vince Giordano
- A collection of vintage cartoons and shorts (Al Jolson in A Plantation Act, An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros. Silver Jubilee, I Love to Singa, Hollywood Handicap and A Day At Santa Anita)
- The 1947 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast of “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson
- Theatrical trailer
- The feature-length The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk documentary
- 2 rare excerpts from Gold Diggers Of Broadway (a 1929 WB film, most of which is considered lost)
- Studio shorts celebrating the early sound era (Finding His Voice, The Voice That Thrilled The World, Okay For Sound, When Talkies Were Young and The Voice From The Screen)
- A collection of rare Vitaphone shorts (nearly 3 and a half hours worth) many considered lost for decades.
The set will be released as a blu-ray book with the below cover art. While I personally would like something similar to the original poster art as shown above, I think the overall package is amazing enough to ignore such a minor quibble.
