Hallelujah I'm A Bum ! - Jolsonmania !

Studio	United Artists
Running Time	80 minutes
Production	October- November 1932
Release	8th February 1933
Director	Lewis Milestone
Screenplay	S.N. Behrman
Music/Lyrics	Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart
Conductor	Alfred Newman
Major players
Bumper - Al Jolson June Marcher - Madge Evans Mayor Hastings - Frank Morgan Egghead - Harry Langdon Sunday - Chester Conklin Acorn - Edgar Connor
Jolson Songs
I Gotta Get Back To New York Hallelujah I'm A Bum Dear June What Do You Want with Money ? I'd Do It Again You Are Too Beautiful
Background
Jolson signed a contract with Joseph Schenck to make 3 films for United Artists. The first was to have been Sons O'Guns, a Broadway musical comedy about a playboy who finds himself in the army with his former valet Hobson as his sergeant. This was abandoned in favour of a story about the tramps in Central Park. The movie was shot first in July to September 1932 with songs by Irving Caesar and with Roland Young in the role of Mayor Hastings. Young became ill and his scenes had to be reshot and the director fell out with Jolson. Eventually the movie was directed by Lewis Milestone who had just won the Academy Award for Best Picture for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). The songs were by Rodgers and Hart and the dialogue was in rhyming couplets.
Reviews
No hallelujahs shall be shouted here, for the production is a far from enthralling example of motion picture art. (William Boehnel, World Telegram)
Verdict
Hardly a lavish production despite its cost this is nevetheless a fascinating film. Very few Depression movies tackled the issues of responsibility and depicted the lives of tamps. Also I can't think of any which didn't have a happy ending, perhaps its not surprising that the film flopped though Jolson's acting is much better than before.