Which 1927 film is famous for helping launch the sound era with synchronized dialogue?

The 1927 film famous for helping launch the sound era with synchronized dialogue is The Jazz Singer.

Directed by Alan Crosland and released by Warner Bros., The Jazz Singer starred Al Jolson as Jakie Rabinowitz, a cantor’s son who pursues a career in popular entertainment. Most of the film is silent with intertitles, but several musical sequences use synchronized recorded sound through the Vitaphone system. Jolson’s spoken lines, including the famous “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet,” made the film a landmark in cinema history.

The film did not create synchronized sound, and it was not the first movie to contain any recorded dialogue. Earlier experiments, including short sound films, had already demonstrated the technology. Its importance was commercial and cultural: its success convinced major studios and theaters that talking pictures could attract large audiences.

A common mix-up is confusing it with Sunrise, Wings, or The Crowd, all important late-silent films. Wings won the first Academy Award for Best Picture, while Sunrise is celebrated for silent-film artistry; neither is the movie chiefly associated with Hollywood’s transition to sound.