Say It with Songs

Plot synopsis:
Joe Lane, radio entertainer and songwriter, learns that the manager of the studio, Arthur Phillips, has made improper advances to his wife, Katherine. Infuriated, Lane engages him in a fight, and the encounter results in Phillips' accidental death. Joe goes to prison and soon insists that Katherine divorce him, for her and their son's sake, and marry her employer, Dr. Merrill, since Joe has learned the doctor has feelings for Katherine and would provide for them well. When Joe is released he visits his son, Little Pal, at school and they embrace during outdoor recess. Joe says goodbye when recess is over, but Little Pal follows Joe downtown and is soon struck by a truck, causing the paralysis of his legs and loss of his voice.
Joe takes the boy to Dr. Merrill, who long ago proposed to Katherine, but she had politely declined and told the doctor that she still loved Joe. Dr. Merrill says he will either operate for free if Joe relinquishes Little Pal to his mother's care or charge a large fee if Joe insists on keeping the boy to himself. Joe panics and leaves with the boy, but soon realizes his mistake and brings Little Pal back for the surgery. After obtaining Joe's promise that he will return Little Pal to his mother, Merrill operates and restores the use of the boy's legs. Little Pal's voice is regained later when Katherine plays a recording by Joe, "Little Pal", at his bedtime and Little Pal dreams of a tender visit with his father holding him in his arms and singing to him. Joe returns to work, singing and also sending personal messages over the airwaves to his wife, who, along with their son, await Joe at their lovely home.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
SAY IT WITH SONGS (Warner Brothers, 1929), directed by Lloyd Bacon, reunites the legendary Al Jolson with little boy wonder, Davey Lee, of 'SINGING FOOL' (1928) fame, in yet another sentimental musical drama that failed to live up to the success of its predecessor.
This, Jolson's third feature film, contains several firsts in his movie career: His first full length talkie (with no silent passages); no black-face song numbers; and the first Jolson movie to flop at the box office.
It was also one of the few films in his career in which his on-screen character isn't named AL, and the second and last casting him as a married man.The story involves Joe Land (Al Jolson), a radio singer with a loving wife, Katherine (Marion Nixon) and five-year-old son he calls Little Pal (Davey Lee), sent to prison for accidentally murdering Arthur Phillips (Kenneth Thompson) his friend and manager for making advances on his wife.
When son is struck by a passing truck, Joe takes him to Doctor Arthur Phillips (Holmes Herbert), a specialist and Katherine's former beau now working for him as his private nurse.
Phillips agrees to perform the delicate operation on the condition that Joe goes away, grants Katherine a divorce so he can marry her, or else pay the high fee of $5,000.As syrupy as the plot sounds, it's even more thicker on screen.
Relying heavily on the success of THE SINGING FOOL, lightning didn't strike twice for Jolson, Lee and director Bacon.
Jolson and Lee even repeated some of the same sentimental gimmicks, including Davey Lee's raising his arms for Daddy to pick him up and give him a kiss.
Some heavy melodramatics might have worked somehow had it not been for Jolson's bad acting, hearing scratchiness in his voice, looking back and forth leaving his mouth open as if he were waiting for further instructions from his director.
Overacting is evident as Jolson cries in his jail cell after telling his wife he never wants to see her again.
Even worse, after he finds that it's his own son who's been struck by a passing truck, he unconvincingly shouts out, "Oh my God, it's MY baby"; or when Jolson sings "One Sweet Kiss" on a coast to coast radio hookup on Christmas day, he does this in such dramatic manner it almost leaves an impression that he was hoping for an Academy Award nomination.
Regardless of the results, the finished product is often embarrassing to watch, especially for a story that's supposed to take place in a considerable time frame of several years, only to have its major characters, especially little Davey, not aging a day.
As Robert Osborne mentioned in his 1994 commentary on Turner Classic Movies, audiences flocked to theaters to see the film (hoping to get more of that Jolson magic, as he did with THE SINGING FOOL), but business dropped off in a hurry, and movie quickly disappeared.
At least it didn't became one of many lost films from the "dawn of sound" era.SAY IT WITH SONGS, such as it is, does have scenes of some potential, first where Joe sings "Why Can't You" to his fellow prisoners, followed by a montage and split screen of fellow convicts, concluding with Jolson's singing showing his face behind the prison bars; second where little Davey falling asleep, dreaming of his Dad appearing to him while singing "Little Pal"; and another borrowing from the climactic scene of the silent version of STELLA DALLAS (1925) which has Joe looking in on his son from the outside window.
Marion Nixon, in her Janet Gaynor manner, wasn't much help in her partake as Joe's wife through some bad acting, but it's Jolson's performance that bogs down the plot considerably.
Aside from the lead actors, Davey Lee has his tender moments on screen, but at times (as his eyes look towards the camera), it's hard to understand what he's saying.
One scene where he follows his father down the street comes off funny considering how he's wobbling about either like a puppet or silent film comic Charlie Chaplin.SAY IT WITH SONGS does have its considerable amount of songs, none listed on the hit parade.
The songs include: "Used to You," "Little Pal," "I'm in Seventh Heaven," "Why Can't You?" "One Sweet Kiss," "Little Pal," "Little Pal" (reprises) and "I'm in Seventh Heaven." Supposedly distributed in theaters at 95 minutes, TV print that airs on TCM, is 85 minutes, ten minutes shorter.
One noticeable cut occurs in the early portion of the story in the radio station where Joe Lane asks one of the visiting sponsors if he wants to hear his new song, "I'm Crazy for You." After Joe goes over to the piano to plug it, the scene that follows is dialog between Katherine and Arthur Phillips in his office.
Another reported song, "Back in Your Own Back Yard," supposedly written for the film, is also absent.
SAY IT WITH SONGS never made it to video cassette, but did become part of the Al Jolson film collection when distributed on laser disc in the early 1990s, and a TCM archive collection onto DVD in 2010.SAY IT WITH SONGS is not the kind of movie one would see for entertainment, but solely as a curiosity to find out how it failed and why it doesn't hold up today.
Say It With Songs is the first all talking film that Al Jolson did on initial Warner Brothers contract and for him the first flop in his Hollywood career.
You can't say that the Brothers Warner didn't follow the usual Hollywood formula in that if something succeeds, copy it as best you can.
Jolson had scored well with his second film The Singing Fool and his singing of Sonny Boy to four year old Davey Lee was the big hit.
Little Pal did become a Jolson standard though not to the same degree as Sonny Boy. But the score is serviceable for the plot which has Jolson as a radio singer.Being a radio singer obviated the need for Jolson's usual blackface persona.
Say It With Songs became the first of two films he did without the blackface, a fact I hadn't known before.
I had assumed and I'd seen it written that Hallelujah, I'm a Bum was the only film he did without the blackface.More's the pity here because if Say It With Songs had been a hit Jolson might have abandoned the burnt cork and his historic reputation wouldn't have suffered so.The plot has Jolson a happy go lucky radio singer who unfortunately likes to drink and gamble and generally carouse.
A wolfish radio manager has some designs on wife Marian Nixon and offers her an indecent proposal.
When Jolie hears of it he kills him when he hits the wolf just a little too hard and his head strikes a cement curb.
Marian Nixon has to support herself and goes to work for a doctor who's always had an eye on her as well.
Of course when Jolie hears about in prison he's all for it, but not for her taking up their kid as well.Jolie gets one of the earliest paroles in penal history, even for what probably is a manslaughter 2 conviction because little Davey Lee ages not a bit.
But little Davey also gets himself hit by a car while chasing his dad.
By coincidence the doctor is a specialist and he offers Jolie the indecent proposal this time.I think with the general description of this plot you get the idea of the general mawkishness of the plot.
Director Lloyd Bacon doesn't try to control Jolson's incredible overacting for the camera.
Those two factors were what mainly sank the film.Yet Jolson's dynamism as an entertainer still shines through and when he's singing you almost forget about the plot.
Jolson's Awful Performance Makes the Film Worth Watching.
Say It with Songs (1929) ** (out of 4)Radio personality Joe Lane (Al Jolson) is about to get a major break in his career but his wife (Davey Lee) tells him that his best friend hit up on her.
Joe ends up punching the man and this punch actually kills him so he is sent to prison where he dreams of returning to his wife and child.
Jolson made Warner a fortune with THE JAZZ SINGER, which was the first blockbuster that used some songs in what was basically a silent movie.
From there Jolson scored another hit and the studio rewarded him with a $500,000 contract for this picture.
This here would turn out to be Jolson's first full blown talkie and it also turned into his first box office bomb and in all honesty the film is incredibly awful but thankfully it's so bad that you have to watch it.I guess I should say that Jolson is so awful that it's easy to recommend this movie.
Now, to be fair, Jolson was a singer so perhaps his acting shouldn't be judge too harshly but at the same time he was able to make a career in front of the camera.
There are some really embarrassing moments scattered throughout the film including one scene where Jolson breaks down crying in his jail cell and is consoled by his cell mate.
This is certainly one of the worst and most hilarious things I've seen from a movie during this era.Even without the awful performance you've got a lot of other campy moments as well.
The film's direction from Lloyd Bacon isn't much better but at the same time I'm going to guess that he just didn't have too much to work with.Jolson does sing a few numbers throughout, which range from good to fair but at the same time these certainly weren't enough to save the picture.
SAY IT WITH SONGS is a really poor movie but at the same time it's very much entertaining in a bad way..
New York radio singer Al Jolson (as Joe Lane) is appalled when his wife Marian Nixon (as Katherine) reveals a shocking incident.
She has been invited to be "nice" sexually with the station manager in order to advance Mr. Jolson's career.
Consequently, Jolson is arrested and separated from his beloved son Davey Lee (as "Little Pal").
This was made to look like a sequel to Jolson's "The Singing Fool" (1928) but falls significantly short.
Probably, Jolson's already tremendous ego was too much for director Lloyd Bacon and the studio to bear..."Say It with Songs" could have been a successful melodrama, but the players look helpless and uneasy.
The artful sequences highlighting Jolson's previous films are mostly absent.
"Little Pal" b/w "I'm in Seventh Heaven" and "Why Can't You" all made the national top ten.
While not as strong as "Sonny Boy", "Little Pal" provided and interesting interlude near the end; it was another #1 hit record.
The #2 flip side, "I'm in Seventh Heaven" was the superior tune; it's the closing song and ends the film on a good note.*** Say It with Songs (8/6/29) Lloyd Bacon ~ Al Jolson, Marian Nixon, Davey Lee, Holmes Herbert.
Al Jolson's first all-talking picture produces uneven results.
This film is not as bad as you would gather by reading other reviews on the subject.
In the first place, Al Jolson was a great entertainer, but he never was a great actor.
Also, you have to understand that Jolson's films were mainly just made as vehicles for audiences to see and hear what Al Jolson did best - sing his heart out.
His films were never meant to be competition with "All Quiet on the Western Front".The problem here is that this film is obviously recycling parts of "The Singing Fool" - primarily the big love Jolson's character has for his little son, "Little Pal", again played by Davie Lee. Jolson plays ex prize fighter Joe Lane, now a radio star married to a devoted wife who is losing patience with Joe's continued love for gambling.
At the same time, the manager of the radio station where Joe works is infatuated with Joe's wife and puts the moves on her.
Of course Joe's wife tells him what happened.
Joe then confronts the guy and an argument between the two ends in Joe landing an all too effective punch that results in Joe going to prison for manslaughter.The plot is thin even for 1929, but as over-the-top as Jolson's acting style could be in these early films, he is still much more natural before the camera than many other full-fledged movie actors of the time.
That and the fact that it is always a pleasure to hear and see Jolson sing makes this worth watching.
Also note that this is one of very few Warner Brothers films that still survive from 1929.
This is the first all-talking movie starring Al Jolson.
Although he made two 'talkies' before this, they were both essentially silent films with sound portions added.
This one was always intended as a sound film and is a bit more modern in this sense.
He is a married guy with a cute kid (Davey Lee--who played Jolson's adorable son in several films).
While in prison, Al's great singing ability is discovered and he goes on the radio (I am sure that MOST radio shows of the day originated in prison, right?!).
He doesn't tell the wife and instead sneaks off to see the kid.
The bottom line is that the film never makes much sense, is WAY too sentimental and schmaltzy and lacks the usual hit tunes of his other films.
Overall, this is a boring and silly little film where Jolson and the filmmakers went to the well too many times--and came up with a syrupy sweet mess..
Jolson's third feature, Say It With Songs (1929), was actually his first all-talkie presentation.
Obviously made to cash in on the surprising success of The Singing Fool, the movie re-unites Jolson with director Lloyd Bacon and child actor, Davey Lee. Once again, Bacon starts off most promisingly, this time with a satiric montage of crummy presenters on a radio station (although the singers are actually not all that bad).
This promise looks like being realized when presentable heel, Kenneth Thompson, comes on screen and tries to seduce Marian Nixon (though what he sees in mousey Marian, I don't know.
Unfortunately, although he's by far the best actor in the movie, Thompson is killed of early in the piece.
I'll admit that Marian Nixon, does improve as the film progresses.
But maybe she only seems to get better because Jolson gets worse.
All told, the soggy script, the cheese-paring art direction, Jolson's over-emoting, the third-rate score and Bacon's talentless no-direction add up to a most disappointing Warner DVD..
The songs are subpar for Jolson, with lame lyrics that have you guessing ahead to each rhymed line ending.
First, in the prison, the (unseen) orchestra starts playing and Jolson sings verse after verse of "Why Can't You?" to his fellow cons.
Second, and even more deranged, he is told by the first attending doctor that his son, who has just been hit by a truck, has spine damage.
In the next scene, Jolie carries his son to another doctor for treatment!
The big message of "Say It With Songs" was in the box office -- Warners learned that all-talkers did not guarantee profits..
Bacon, Jolson and Lee - the unfortunate "sequel".
Due to the surprise gross receipts of The Singing Fool, Director Bacon, Star Jolson and Sidekick Lee were rushed back to WB to produce something worthy of the former.
What they produced was a weak imitation of The Singing Fool and SIWS bombed.
SIWS is a really good example of that.I have been a huge Jolson fan for 30 years, since I was a teenager.
Oh that's right, WB was too cheap for that back then.SPOILER One of the many examples of bad dialog and bad acting is when Little Pal gets hit by a car, Jolson with wide eyes exclaims "Oh my God, it's MY baby!" is truly an unintentional hysterical moment in the history of film.
The reaction I had was, to be sure, not the one Bacon had in mind when he was directing this turkey.I'm not sure if Davey Lee can act.
He had the best moments in the movie, the courtroom scene being one.
This was the only thing that was successfully carried over from the first film to the second.
In fact, years later in The Singing Kid, his scenes with another child actress, Sybil Jason, are even more phenomenal.
He should have done more that.It would have been nice to have, in these first few Jolson films, some A list co-stars.
Imagine Helen Morgan as his wife and Adolph Menjou as the doctor!!
Most of his early films tend to suffer from being "all about Jolson".
Imagine a Jolson and Morgan duet!!
I suppose that at this stage in his career that Jolson didn't want to share the marque with anybody on his level, hence, the forgettable supporting actors.
In the long run, that was a bad decision on his part as Jolson's infamous ego has hurt the watch-ability of the early films today.Speaking of mediocre, the songs are just that.
Little Pal did stay in his rep for the rest of Jolson's life.
Not sure why, it's too much like Sonny Boy, which is the better of the two and its by no means a pop masterpiece.The best scene in the film is a brilliantly directed dream sequence of Little Pal dreaming his father is singing...
Little Pal...
It's a really, really nice, very imaginative scene.In conclusion, I still love Jolie.
It is a curiosity only for Jolson fans like me.
(Still no duet though - what a loss!) It is a shame that Jolson went out of style, or something, by the end of the '30 as we lost what could have been a wonderful fatherly character type actor in the '40s.