Hallelujah I'm a Bum

Hallelujah I'm a Bum
by Lewis Milestone

Hallelujah I'm a Bum
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Al Jolson, Chester Conklin, Frank Morgan, Harry Langdon, Madge Evans
Director: Lewis Milestone
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-02-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Movie Reviews of Hallelujah I'm a Bum

Movie Review: An Pleasant, Interesting Musical
Summary: 3 Stars

This may not be Al Jolson's best movie, but this very entertaining musical is certainly his most interesting.

Directed by Lewis Milestone and featuring a pleasant score by Rogers and Hart, the film casts the legendary performer as the self-proclaimed "Mayor of Central Park," the happiest hobo in New York City. His life changes when he falls in love with beautiful amnesiac Madge Evans, who just happens to be the mistress of his friend, the city's playboy Mayor (Frank Morgan).

What makes this film truly memorable, aside from Jolson's singing, is the script's rhyming dialogue and the character played by silent screen comedian Harry Langdon, who is consistently spouting statements that, in that Depression era, would definitely be considered "Red".

? Michael B. Druxman

Summary of Hallelujah I'm a Bum

The legendary Al Jolson is the self-proclaimed "Mayor of Central Park" in this "stylized, sophisticated and lyrical" (Pauline Kael) comic operetta ?- one of the most decidedly different and delightful musicals ever made! A unique attempt to expand the boundaries of the format, Hallelujah I'm a Bum! captures Jolson at his charismatic best and "reveals more than any of his other surviving films just why [he] was so great a star" (The London Times)!Bumper (Jolson) is the happiest hobo in New York. He's just fallen head-over-heels in love with the beautiful young amnesiac (Madge Evans) he's rescued from a park lake. But when he discovers her true identity, the "Mayor of Central Park" suddenly finds himself competing for her affections with a rich playboy?...the Mayor of New York (Frank Morgan, The Wizard of Oz)!
Al Jolson says, "You ain't seen nothin' yet," but this isn't The Jazz Singer. Jolson found one of his better movie roles in Hallelujah, I'm a Bum!, a curious 1933 artifact of the early-sound, pre-Code era, a movie replete with music, political comment, and occasionally risqu? humor. Jolie plays "the mayor of Central Park," a happy hobo who cleans up after he meets an amnesiac beauty. Alas, the workaday world isn't what it's cracked up to be, as his leisure-minded pals knew all along. Although never quite clicking into classic status, the movie is borne aloft on the Rodgers and Hart score (which includes "You Are Too Beautiful" and much rhyming dialogue) and director Lewis Milestone's fluid tracking shots of hoboes marching and singing through Central Park. That's Harry Langdon, former silent clown, as the Communist tramp warning about the impending revolution as he picks up garbage--a measure of this film's true oddness. --Robert Horton

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