Thu 14 May 2015
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: JAZZ MAD (1928).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews , Silent films[7] Comments
JAZZ MAD. Universal Pictures, 1928; Jean Hersholt, Marion Nixon, George Lewis, Roscoe Karns. Director: F. Harmon Weight. Shown at Cinefest 18, Liverpool NY, March 1998.
Hersholt plays a German composer who moves with his daughter to America to find a supporter of his classical symphony and finds all doors closed to him. In desperation, he takes a job in a club conducting an orchestra.
The act is a comedy turn, which submits the conductor and musicians to vegetables thrown by the audience. When his daughter’s suitor’s wealthy parents learn of this public spectacle, they connive to separate the couple and Hersholt falls into a deep depression.
The machinations of Roscoe Karns lead to a performance of the symphony by the Hollywood Bowl Symphony orchestra (performing indoors) and the conductor’s acclaim as an unrecognized genius.
It sounds treacly, but the performance. are uniformly excellent and the public humiliation of the musician is a striking forerunner of Emil Janning’s role in The Blue Angel. Splendid photography by Gilbert Warrenton. A real find.
May 15th, 2015 at 11:10 am
Reminds me more than a little of THE LAST LAUGH, and I can see Hersholt as an emigre Jannings.
May 15th, 2015 at 3:25 pm
I take it Marie Dressler and Lionel Barrymore are from another movie.
May 15th, 2015 at 3:54 pm
Yes, another movie. Thanks for catching this. I’ve removed the photo. I must have been tired last night. One correct movie star out of three just doesn’t cut it.
May 15th, 2015 at 6:49 pm
Thank you for telling us about this.
It sounds like a movie I’d very much like to see.
I’d never heard of Jazz Mad. Or its director F. Harmon Weight.
An impression: Weight is really obscure and little studied.
November 8th, 2015 at 11:13 pm
I bought a poster for this movie yesterday. I’d like to watch the movie, but can’t find it. How did you watch it? Is it available on DVD?
November 8th, 2015 at 11:22 pm
Bill
As the review says, Walter saw this movie at a classic film festival called Cinefest in 1998. So the movie exists, which is a good starting point. But when I looked for even a collector-to-collector copy online, I came up blank. My only suggestion is to keep looking. It’s out there, somewhere.
Steve
April 17th, 2017 at 6:47 pm
This film will be shown at the Cinevent Classic Film Convention in Columbus, Ohio over Memorial Day weekend.
I know it’s been a couple of years since Bill made his post asking about this movie, but thought I’d share the information all the same.