By Peter Covino

Lifestyles Editor

Start the New Year with one of the most important movies ever made, The Jazz Singer.

Warner Bros. Studios begins a 90th anniversary 2013 global celebration with the 3-disc Blu-ray debut of the first feature-length film with completely synchronized dialogue and musical sequences, Jan. 8.

Watching this at home, The Jazz Singer (1927) is a revelation. It is hard to imagine the impact this little film had on theater-goers, who could hardly believe their ears when they heard Al Jolson both speak and sing.

Almost overnight, the landscape of motion pictures changed. Many of the most popular Hollywood stars would soon find themselves out of work because they did not have voices to match their faces. The classic musical Singin’ in the Rain is all about who the “talkies” changed everything.

The Jazz Singer is still very much a silent film. There are those familiar dialogue boxes, but there are several musical sequences and dialogue.

The movie premiered at the Warner Theater in New York City on Oct. 6, 1927 and became a national phenomenon even though only 200 theaters nationwide were equipped with Vitaphone’s sound-on-disc technology (a 16-inch disc was synchronized with standard 35m projection equipment). In less than 2 years, some 8,000 theaters were “wired for sound” and the silent picture was virtually dead.

Along with Jolson, the film co-stars Warner Oland, May McAvoy and Eugenie Besserer. Jolson indeed plays “the jazz singer” who disgraced his Jewish Cantor father by singing such songs.

Jolson sings many of his trademark songs in the film including Toot-Toot-Tootsie Goodbye,” “My Mammy” and a new song by Irving Berlin, “Blue Skies.”

The set is nicely packaged with a 90-page book full of reproductions, photos and content.

A very nice bonus for film buffs is a separate disc that features four hours of Vitaphone shorts, a rare collection seldom scene except at retrospective screenings or as part of a 1996 laserdisc set. Many of the shorts are vaudeville acts, including The Foy Family, Baby Rose Marie and Burns & Allen.

Other special features include the full-length documentary feature The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk, a 93-minute film that covers the 30-plus year struggle to successfully unite sound and image on motion picture screens.

Other bonuses: commentary by film historians; a collection of vintage cartoons and shorts and the 1947 Lux Radio Theater audio starring Al Jolson.

Girls

The Blu-ray player has been working overtime over the holidays including my first viewing ever of Girls, an HBO comedy series.

Definitely made with a female slant (series star Lena Dunham also co-wrote and directed some of the episodes) Girls is not a painful experience for the boys either. This is a well-written show with a lot of interesting characters and many New York City locales.

Girls is definitely easier for the guys than Sex in the City. Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna have been living in the city for a few years and they are still trying to figure things out.

Hannah (Dunham received a Emmy Award nomination for best actress) is the most hapless — with men, employment and parents, but her friends Jessa, Marnie and Shoshanna are not far behind.

Girls was nominated for five 2012 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Comedy Series.

Blu-ray bonues include  a digital download of the series, “The Making of Girls,” gag reels, deleted and extended scenes; audio commentaries; 20-page booklet containing Lena Dunham’s Tweets.

Season two of Girls comes to HBO in January.

Game Change

A major highlight of 2012 for HBO was the movie Game Change. Nominated for 12 Emmy Awards (and winner of five) Julianne Moore is perfect as Sarah Palin.

Based on the book of the same name, it is an unflattering portrait of John McCain’s Republican  presidential running mate in 2008.

If you love Sarah you may look away in disbelief, if you hate her you will feel so much better Republicans lost in 2008.

The film covers the time period from when McCain (Ed Harris) and staff (Woody Harrelson) decided on the then relatively unknown governor from Alaska as the vice presidential candidate until election day. Harris and Harrelson are equally good as they have to deal with the consequences of selecting Palin who apparently became increasingly unhinged as election day neared.

The Blu-ray combo version of the release includes a DVD copy as well as digital copy.

Bonus features include Creating the Candidate, an examination of Palin by political experts and Game Change: The Phenomenon by the creators of the film and authors of the book who discuss the controversy and campaign drama in the page to screen process of Game Change.

The DVD will be released Jan. 8.

Gypsy

Let The Warner Archive Collection entertain you with the Blu-ray debut of Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood in Gypsy.

This is a visually stunning delight in Blu-ray, with Russell playing over protective mom to two daughters during the heyday and decline of vaudeville. Younger daughter Dainty June finally escapes but older daughter sticks it out and is transformed into stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Great songs (Jules Styne, Stephen Sondheim)  and great performances including Karl Malden as long suffering boyfriend to Mama Rose.

Gypsy is available only online at www.warnerarchive.com.

The Bowery Boys Volume One

Back in New Jersey when I was a kid, it seemed like the local stations showed the Bowery Boys ever weekend. It has been a long time since I have seen a film from this prolific series.

Volume one is a four-disc set featuring films from 1946-52.

Modern audiences have pretty much forgotten the boys, who got their start as juvenile delinquents in the Humphrey Bogart film (and earlier stage play) Dead End. They were the “Dead End” kids in subsequent films, but became the Bowery Boys when they switched studios and did this series mostly for laughs instead of drama. Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey became big stars too.

Titles include Live Wires, In Fast Company, Fighting Fools, Hold that Baby, Master Minds, Blonde Dynamite, Crazy over Horses, News Hounds and Blues Busters.

World War III

Cold War fans will probably like this 1983 mini-series about a bad group of Russians who invade Alaska and trigger the start of World War III. Originally airing on NBC, it stars Rock Hudson as the president and Brian Keith the Soviet leader, and both are trying to prevent a nuclear holocaust. David Soul and Cathy Lee Crosby also star.

World War III is only available via www.Warnerarchive.com.