The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 16, 1981, Page Page 13, Image 13
6 Jazz
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A vanity production to
make the Barbra Streisand
version of "A Star is Born"
seem as panoramic a view of
the music industry as Robert
Altman's "Nashville," the
Neil Diamond version of
"The Jazz Singer" more
appropriately would have
been titled 41 The Las Vegas
Lounge Singer."
There's no hint of jazz in
any of the 12 songs Diamond
composed for and sings in
the film, nor is there
anything resembling rock
and roll, the form of music
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previews considerably more
than hint might be the basis
of the picture.
"Love on the Rocks," the
first hit single from the
soundtrack, is a sweeping,
almost epic ballad and
"America," the song that
bookends the picture, is an
interesting piece of contemporary
pop. The
remaining 10 songs,
however, would be more at
home with Wayne Newton
and Robert Goulet than with
Billie Holliday, Mick Jagger
or even Diamond himself.
But the audiences portrayed
in "The Jazz Singer"
lap up Diamond's trite
compositions like so many
kittens turned loose in a milk
Neil Diamond tries to talk
remade version of "The Ji
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when the "soulful" Diamond
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bestow a little boogie on
them. Texas Rednecks hoot
and holler when the "high-inthe-saddle"
Diamond struts
onstage in a leather vest as
steel guitars strum him
' welcome and bid him to take
a nip of Jack Daniels and a
swipe at singing Charlie
Daniels.
And when the real
Diamond ? I say "real"
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one but himself in this picture
? strolls in front of a
Barry Manilow-type
audience, with 50-piece
orchestra heaving, $50
blouse glittering and 50,000
watt light show blinding, the
already ecstatic fans spin
and whir into a veritable
orgy of adoration.
It doesn't matter that the
songs Diamond sings in
these vastly different settings
are interchangeable,
for in the preposterous world
of "The Jazz Singer," Neil
Diamond could turn Porter
Wagoner on to Prokofiev, the
Sex Pistols on to Sondheim
and Lawrence Welk on to
Led Zeppelin.
There is simply no end to
what this man can accomplish
with a microphone.
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Give him an extra-long
extension cord and he
probably could bring about
world peace, end starvation
and reverse the processes
which made the carrier
pigeon and the dodo bird
extinct. In the case of the
latter, he might even lay the
eggs himself.
The character Diamond
purports to play in 44 The
Jazz Singer" is Yussel
Rabinovich. He's a third
generation cantor at a New
York synogogue, who
abandons his wife (Catlin
Adams) and his father
(Laurence Olivier, in
another one of his take-themoney-and-run
performances)
for a new name,
Jess Robin, and a recording
contract in California. He
picks up a hotshot manager
(Lucie Arnaz) upon his
arrival and she, of course,
turns him into an overnight
sensation.
The already unbelievable
storv. as UDdate in the
leaden script by Herbert
Baker (whom I pray is not a
relative of mine, however
distant), is ridiculous
beyond the wildest
imaginations. But what is
truly offensive about the
movie is that director
Richard Fleischer, whose
only hit in the past two
decades was the sordid
"Mandingo," seems to be
jrence Olivier, in a poorly
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afraid of having Diamond
out of camera range.
This might not have been
so bad if Diamond posessed
even the most miniscule
amount of acting talent. At
least with "A Star is Born,"
the ppntf?r nf nur ntt??ntir?n
could act. Streisand
sometimes acted a little
overemphatically, but ^she
could act nonetheless and
she could hold our attention
for days on end.
Diamond spends most of
his screen time muttering
into men's ties and women's
cleavage. He never looks
another actor in the face, so
he becomes a distraction,
both to those who must play
off him and to those who
must sit in the theater and
watch him make a fool of
himself.
His never-changing
timidity is also preposterous
in the context of the film. ]
How could a wimp like this, a
pampered cantor's son who
is so afraid of life that he
can't face another human
being eye to eye, pull
together enough gumption to
perform before a small
group of friends, much less a
powerful producer or an
overflowing auditorium
And the only thing worse
than Diamond's 'acting" is
his painfully dull personality.
Nowhere is his lack
of screen presence more
evident than in the scenes he
shares with Arnaz, who has
very quietly developed into
one of America's most interesting
and lovable young
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Neil Diamond sings "Lc
performers.
When Diamond and Arnaz
are together, the camera
seems to caress her every
feature and movement,
while suppressing his far
into the background, as if he
was no more than a fleshonH.hl/wl
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animated birdcage. Arnaz
blows him off the screen at
every opportunity with her
snappy delivery and endearing
facial expressions.
Given that Arnaz is
coming off a marvelous
performance in the
Broadway musical "They're
Playing Our Song," my
biggest regret concerning
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"The Jazz Singer" is that the
producers didn't opt for a
feminist version of the tale,
with Arnaz in the lead,
singing jazz, and Diamond
on vacation in Guatemala,
swatting flies
They might not have had a
top 10 album with that
arrangement, but they'd
have had a reasonably fresh
approach to one of the more
antiquated dinosaurs from
Hollywood's Mesozoic era.
As it is, "The Jazz Singer" is
just the latest in a long line of
overproduced, overpriced
and overblown Christmas
turkies. Avoid it if you
possibly can.
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