BIG BOY

 Big Boy may well be the closest a modern audience will ever come to seeing what a genuine Al Jolson Broadway musical looked like. It is the only one of Jolson’s Broadway shows to be filmed. Based on his 1925 hit, the film casts Jolson in the blackface role of Gus, a stable boy at a moss-covered Southern plantation. Gus' favorite horse is the magnificent Big Boy, whom he hopes to ride to victory at the Kentucky Derby. Two years pass by and Gus is still seen caring and singing to Big Boy, now a full grown horse. Hoping to recoup the family fortune, the Bedford family state their hopes on Big Boy to be trained for the Kentucky Derby by Gus. Shortly before the big race, Jack (Lloyd Hughes) and Annabel (Claudia Dell) return home from school in the east, with Jack accompanied by Coley Reed (Eddie Phillips), Doctor Wilbur (Lew Harvey) and Steve Leslie (Colin Campbell), an English jockey. Reed persuades Jack to urge his grandmother (Louise Closser Hale) to entrust the race to Steve, and succeed in having Gus fired so that the bad guys can "throw the race." But while Gus succeeds in obtaining employment as an eccentric singing waiter, he eventually learns of the scheme and outsmarts the crooks. Included is a lengthy flashback to 1870 with a brutal Noah Beery as an overbearing heavy, reminiscent of the late 19th century melodramas, like the Drunkard. The fine character actress, Louise Closser Hale, is also featured. In Big Boy, Jolson’s Gus displays a persona more reminiscent of Eddie Cantor, that of a wisecracking comic who occasionally bursts into song. (There are a few good one-liners!) This is the only time he would play a central character entirely in blackface. Jolson performs his character in the most relaxed manner, giving the movie a different feel from his previous schmaltzy efforts that began with THE JAZZ SINGER (1927). The finale sequence is a clever and utterly charming ending. Gus (in jockey breeches) spins a complete 360 degree circle to “wipeâ€� away his makeup.. the scene fades to a "curtain call" on a Warner Bros. soundstage, with Jolson, minus makeup and out of character, cheerfully introducing the supporting cast and offering to sing few encores for the benefit of the spectators. The closing reprise of “Tomorrow is Another Day, “ in which Jolson waxes nostalgic over Sunday dinner with his family: "What’s that hanging in the kitchen window, a luscious Southern ham! Ha, .Ha! That ain't my house!"

 BIG BOY not only reunites Jolson with his JAZZ SINGER director, Alan Crosland, it marks his shortest screen feature (67 minutes) and a rarity in becoming his second released film in a single year. It also marked an end to Jolson's first cycle in motion pictures, which began with The JAZZ SINGER He wouldn't appear in another film until 1933, by then the cycle of movie musicals would have changed styles to more serious, story driven scripts.. The film is an interesting curio, but is not without its charms. While no signature Jolson tunes emerge from either the show or film, it does have several charming sentimental songs include: "Liza Lee," "My Little Sunshine," ""Tomorrow is Another Day," and a smashing up tempo nightclub tune called "Hooray for Baby and Me."