Hallelujah I'm a Bum

Al Jolson musical that portrays being homeless as a choice and it was made in 1933. It was too detached for me, there are ways to find humor in poverty, this isn't one of them.

Despite being a musical, the songs can barely be called such - only using rhyming couplets is cute for a short while but quickly grows rather tiresome - while the story is unsophisticated, naively fanciful and quite distasteful. Jolson himself exhibits no real star quality in a blandly cheerful leading role but Frank Morgan is as excellent as ever in support.

Viewed February 13, 2022. An unusual, inventive musical about a community of people who live in Central Park, celebrate their homelessness and unemployment, and extoll the virtues of socialism - a jubilant Depression-era vision with a lot of fun Rodgers and Hart sing-song dialogue and great on-location shooting.

85.00

Hallelujah I'm a Bum (1933)! Might not be too long before I actually am one myself, but this is the movie starring Al Jolson and a bunch of old comedians from the silent era, and among the most watched 30s films I'd yet to see. And it's cute with it's rhymes and musical dialogue. An attempt at something different, so one got to appreciate them playing around with this. Perhaps not the most remarkable movie experiences one will have, but definitely memorable with a catchy theme song!