Hallelujah, I'm a Bum
            
Director: Lewis Milestone
Year: 1933
Rating: 7.0
Friends, rummies and countrymen.

This slightly looney, eccentric and finally touching Depression comedy/musical came as an unexpected surprise. A good one. It stars the greatest entertainer of the 1920s, Al Jolson. Without blackface! Though with a black friend. Jolson was so big in the 1920s on the stage as a performer that when Warner's decided to make the first film with songs in it, they thought only Jolson could pull it off. And he did. The Jazz Singer was so popular that it ushered in sound. At the time, that wasn't a sure thing. Most people didn't want sound, Jolson changed their minds. Infamous now for his use of blackface in film, Jolson had actually been performing in blackface since early in the century. Back then it wasn't considered as racist as it is now. Things change and Jolson in fact often promoted black actors and musicians. In the few films of his I have seen, his style of acting feels as old-fashioned as a suit of armor - but he is terrific here.


 
The musical numbers were composed by Rodgers and Hart, directed mainly by Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) and co-starring Frank Morgan with silent comedy stars, Harry Langdon and Chester Conklin - and the girl is Madge Evans (Dinner at Eight). Politically it is hard to say where it falls. It is right smack dab in the worst of the Depression and most of the characters are hobos and bums living off the land. And loving it. None of them really want to be working stiffs. And the wealthier are not portrayed negatively, At the same time one of them (played by Langdon) is a Communist spouting slogans against capitalism - and when he sees some cops on horses, yells at them "Hoover's Cossacks". Herbert or Edgar, I am not sure. It is lighthearted and joyful for most of it with a touch of pathos at the end. The lyrics that Hart wrote are sung primarily in rhyming patter style - with a few exceptions - such as Jolson singing Hallelujah, I'm a Bum again after he finds $1,000 and returns it. Money is the cause of all the misery in the world.

 

He and his friend Acorn (played with mischievous zest by black actor Edgar Connor, known as Half Pint for his small stature - who sadly was to die the following year) are in Florida when a goose falls into their arms - broiled or baked they debate - when the Mayor of New York City comes to claim his shot bird for publicity pictures. But he and Bumper (Jolson) are old friends and he sits down to eat with them. The Mayor is Frank Morgan and he is great here - not his often stumbling character - but a tough cookie who is currently lovelorn after he thinks his girlfriend (Madge) has cheated on him. He takes the train back to the city while Bumper and Acorn hitchhike. He offered, they refused to come with him. Back in the city, Bumper is the King of Central Park and all the other bums pay their respects to him. And sing with him. Life is good. Then a dame falls into his life. That's never a good thing for a free man. The film bombed at the box office which is a shame - I expect people didn't know what to make of it. Jolson probably wishes he had sung in blackface - as he did in his next film, Wonder Bar - which to today's eyes is as racist as a KKK rally.