In 1929 Carl Laemmle, the founder and head of Universal Pictures, decided to make his son, 21 year old Carl Junior, the head of production at the studio. The fact that Junior had no previous production experience was no big deal. Carl Sr. was famous for his nepotism. When the family was forced to sell Universal in 1936, there were 79 Laemmle friends and/or relations on the payroll. They were promptly fired when the new owners took over. Up until 1929 Universal was well known for its low budget features especially Westerns. There were the occasional big budget productions such as Erich von Stroheim’s FOOLISH WIVES or Lon Chaney’s THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and the original SHOW BOAT but these were rare even though they did make money. Junior wanted to change Universal’s image by making more big budget movies like Paramount or MGM.
He immediately put together two large scale productions. They were ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT based on Erich Maria Remarque’s antiwar novel and KING OF JAZZ which would cash in on the popularity of bandleader Paul Whiteman. The average Universal A movie budget was $250,000. ALL QUIET cost $1.5 million but made it back and then some plus it won a number of Oscars including Best Picture. KING OF JAZZ cost a staggering $2 million and became a huge box office flop. It opened well but then revenues declined sharply after the first week. The demand for early sound musical extravaganzas had passed and KING OF JAZZ quickly disappeared,. This was too bad as KOJ had a lot to offer and was influential within the industry. Now, almost a hundred years later, there is a lot to interest a 21st century audience from a historical and a musical perspective.
Junior Laemmle made sure that every penny he spent would show up on the screen. The stagings are lavish and imaginative, the costumes are gorgeous, and the film was shot in early two color Technicolor. The movie is ostensibly about Paul Whiteman and his orchestra and unfolds as a series of sketches. It starts with an animated color cartoon (2 years before Disney’s FLOWERS & TREES) from Walter Lantz of Woody Woodpecker fame then introduces the band through a series of clever special effects. One of the singers is a young Bing Crosby making his film debut. Conductor Paul Whiteman is a genial personality who bears a striking resemblance to Oliver Hardy. Aside from being a topnotch bandleader and musician, he is also quite natural in a couple of non-musical numbers where he displays a relaxed body language and a laid back attitude.
The extravagant musical numbers leading up to George Gershwin’s RHAPSODY IN BLUE with its bizarre and now controversial African opening (a French dancer is in black body paint) were devised and designed by Broadway impresario John Murray Anderson who directed the film . There are also “blackouts” (very brief comedy sketches) and Vaudeville musical routines in between. The movie concludes with a “Melting Pot” musical number where all the ethnicities are European. The highlight for me is the segment featuring band member Willie Hall. Dressed as a Chaplin lookalike, Hall performs POP GOES THE WEASEL on violin in a variety of impossible positions without missing a beat. That in itself would have been more than enough but he follows it up by performing THE STARS & STRIPES FOREVER on a bicycle pump (!) that has to be heard to be believed.
Many thanks are due to the various organizations from Universal Pictures who originally made the film and helped to fund the restoration, to YCM Laboratories for actually doing the restoration which used an original camera negative and 3 other prints. Thanks also to Criterion for making KING OF JAZZ available on Blu-ray for the audiences of today. There are a whole host of of extras including several audio commentaries, introductions and video essays along with two OSWALD THE RABBIT cartoons which are related to the film, In the final analysis, KOJ is definitely a mixed bag but John Murray Anderson’s over-the-top stagings, the musical excellence of Paul Whiteman’s orchestra and Ferde Grofe’s arrangements along with the best use of the early Technicolor process that I have ever seen, make the movie a cinematic time capsule that I’m glad was reopened.
The Capsule Critic 