The Jazz Singer

(1927; screens Monday at 6 p.m.)

Using the Vitaphone sound process, Warner Bros. turned out the first movie with talking passages, adapting a Samson Raphaelson play about a cantor's son (Al Jolson) who decides to go into show business rather than follow in his father's footsteps. If Jolson isn't your cup of tea, you may not find the musical numbers sufficient reward for sitting through the (silent) melodrama sequences. He sings "Blue Skies," "Toot Toot Tootsie," and, inevitably, "Mammy."