King of Jazz still survives in a near-complete color print and is not a lost film, unlike many contemporary musicals that now exist only either in incomplete form or as black-and-white reduction copies.

There is no narrative continuity, only a series of musical numbers alternating with "blackouts" (brief comedy sketches with abrupt punch line endings) and other short introductory or linking segments.

Another provides the audience with a chance to see the Rhythm Boys, already famous by sound but not sight because of their recordings and radio broadcasts, performing in a home-like setting.

There are novelty and comedy numbers ranging from the mildly risqué ("Ragamuffin Romeo", which features contortionistic dancing by Marion Stadler and Don Rose) to the humorously sadomasochistic (the second chorus of "I Like to Do Things for You") to the simply silly ("I'm a Fisherman").

There is a line of chorus girls, practically mandatory in early musicals, but in their featured spot the novelty is that they perform the choreography while seated.

King of Jazz was the nineteenth all-talking motion picture filmed entirely in two-color Technicolor rather than simply including color sequences.

Fortunately, the green dye Technicolor used can actually appear peacock blue (cyan) under some conditions,[5] but acceptable results in this case would require very careful handling.

King of Jazz marked the first film appearance of the popular crooner and singer Bing Crosby,[6] who, at the time, was a member of The Rhythm Boys, the Whiteman Orchestra's vocal trio.

The film preserves a vaudeville bit by Whiteman band trombonist Wilbur Hall, who does novelty playing on violin and bicycle pump, as well as the eccentric dancing of "Rubber Legs" Al Norman to the tune of "Happy Feet".

One of the characters making a brief appearance in the cartoon is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the star of the Universal Studios animation department led by Lantz.

[8] The Rhythm Boys (Bing Crosby, Harry Barris, and Al Rinker) sang "Mississippi Mud", "So the Bluebirds and the Blackbirds Got Together", "I'm a Fisherman", "A Bench in the Park", and "Happy Feet" in the film.

Bing Crosby went on several benders during the filming, crashed his car on Hollywood Boulevard, nearly killing his female passenger, and after showing up in golf attire, and wise-cracking to a judge, was sent to jail for 60 days.

It featured the Rhapsody in Blue and Mildred Bailey backed by the Roxy Chorus and was performed five times a day, between showings of the film, for a week.

One cut for the 1933 re-release was a sketch with William Kent about a suicidal flute player, with the Whiteman Orchestra performing Caprice Viennois as background music.

First, the public had tired of the flood of movie musicals that began as a slow trickle with The Jazz Singer in late 1927 and rapidly became a torrent after the success of The Broadway Melody in early 1929.

In particular disfavor were operettas set in bygone eras, musical comedies which were unimaginatively filmed Broadway stage productions, and plotless "revues" such as King of Jazz.

A reviewer for The New Movie called it a lavish, over-produced "disappointment"; an overlong, "dull mélange" whose only effective performers were Whiteman and John Boles.

[12] In contrast, the New York Times asserted that "John Murray Anderson's initial contribution to the audible screen, 'King of Jazz', with the rotund Paul Whiteman, reveals this director to be a magician of far greater powers than one imagined, even from his stage compositions".

This Technicolor potpourri of songs, dancing and fun is a marvel of camera wizardry, joyous color schemes, charming costumes and seductive lighting effects".

The reviewer, Mordaunt Hall, further praised the film for having "nothing imitative", added that "Mr. Anderson has visualized the full possibilities of the camera in connection with his flights of fancy", and concluded "there is no sequence that isn't worth witnessing and no performance that is not capable in this fastpaced picture".