Say It with Songs
About Say It with Songs
Radio singer Joe Lane kills studio manager Arthur Phillips in a fight after Phillips approaches Joe's wife Katherine. Joe goes to prison and tells Katherine to divorce him and marry Dr. Merrill. On release he meets his son Little Pal at school. The boy follows him and is hit by a truck, losing the use of his legs and his voice. Merrill operates only after Joe agrees to return the child to Katherine. The boy walks again, and his voice comes back when Katherine plays Joe's record 'Little Pal.'
Cast & crew
More about Say It with Songs
Lloyd Bacon directed. Joseph Jackson, Darryl F. Zanuck, and Harvey Gates wrote the script. Lee Garmes photographed it. Warner Bros. released it on 6 August 1929. It reunites Al Jolson with Davey Lee from The Singing Fool (1928). Worldwide rentals were $2,266,000, of which $1,715,000 was domestic and $551,000 foreign.
Themes
Background
An all-talking Warner musical drama opened in August 1929, a year after The Singing Fool.
Making
Warners built it as the next Jolson picture after The Singing Fool, again pairing him with Davey Lee as the child.
Reviews
Mordaunt Hall in The New York Times found it sentimental and dull except when Jolson sang. John Mosher in The New Yorker called it long and dreary. Variety took the opposite line and treated Jolson's acting as an advance.
Audiences
Warner records list worldwide rentals of $2,266,000.
Look
Lee Garmes photographed the radio studio, the prison, and the hospital scenes.
Music
Dave Dreyer and Billy Rose wrote the songs, among them 'Little Pal' and 'I'm in Seventh Heaven.'
Preservation
Extant prints run 95 minutes, ten minutes under the original 105. The film entered the public domain in the United States on 1 January 2025.
Notes
- Al Jolson plays Joe Lane, Marian Nixon plays Katherine, and Davey Lee plays Little Pal.
- Surviving prints run 95 minutes. 'I'm Ka-razy for You' and 'Back in Your Own Back Yard' are missing from them.
- Other songs include 'Used to You,' 'Little Pal,' 'I'm in Seventh Heaven,' 'Why Can't You?,' and 'One Sweet Kiss.'
- It entered the public domain in the United States on 1 January 2025.
Scenes
- Joe and Phillips fight, and Phillips dies.
- Little Pal is struck by a truck after following Joe from school.
- Katherine plays the record 'Little Pal' and the boy speaks again.
Influenced by
- The Singing Fool (1928)
Also available
- Internet Archive (1929-08-06-say-it-with-songs-1929)
