Swanee River

Proof that not every 1939 release was part of the Golden Age. It's the life and not-so-hard times of Stephen Foster (Don Ameche), who despite a heart condition and a taste for the drink manages to crank out hit after hit. This is the cliched sort of composer bio in which every key event turns out to be instant inspiration for a new ditty, and the moment an on-screen audience hears a new song it can immediately join in for a reprise and know all the words. Still, Al Jolson is sturdy as E.P. Christy, the Technicolor is ravishing, and there are several convincing recreations of minstrel show numbers...and that last fact is why you won't see this film around, no way.

It's just not P.C. to show all that blackface any more, let alone the condescending approach to black people. (When Foster has ripped off "Oh Susannah" from a slave work song but is stuck on the last line, Jeannie--she of the light brown hair fame--comments that she's grown up among black music, their simple culture..."Hmmm...Here's how I think the Negroes would end it." Bingo, smash hit.) "Swanee River" is no great shakes as a movie, but it's a shame that people can't see it because of cowardice.

"Swanee River", an extravagant Fox production directed by Sidney Lanfield, is one of those polished, ambitious and somewhat cumbersome biographies of notable figures that were frequent in late 30s and early 40s in Hollywood. Along with this one, there were pictures like "Story of Alexander Graham Bell", "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", "Life of Emile Zola", "Lillian Russell", and "Juarez". Don Ameche, a talented actor and performer who has a great dynamic presence on the screen, redeems this sternly stolid and schmaltzy biography of the legendary composer Stephen Foster. Al Jolson co-stars, and continues to sing his "Mammy" renditions, but they ultimately stick in your throat and become lifeless. I didn't care for Stephen Foster, though I have to admit I really liked his tunes. But in all honesty, I kept watching "Swanee River" because of Ameche.

I am giving this film a "6" because of my fondness for Stephen Foster's melodies (and my pity for his fate), and because - whatever one thinks of his racist "blackface" act, Al Jolson was a wonderful singer. If it had been shot as a concert film of Foster's best tunes, it would have been worth an "9" or even a "10". Instead it is tied to one of those idiotic Hollywood composer biographies. It is a sub-set to Hollywood biographies, all of which have fact problems. Here it is trying to concentrate on Foster's alcoholism (a fact), but not on the business problems he confronted in his career.

Foster was the first American composer of lasting merit (although his contemporary Louis Moreau Gottschalk came close). His compositions were totally composed by him (including lyrics). But he never had any business abilities, so that while tunes like "Old Folks At Home", "Beautiful Dreamer", "The Camptown Races", "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Oh Susannah" were massive popular hits, Foster got remarkably little of the profits. Added to his problems were the lack of efficient copy-write protection in the U.S. (or on the globe, for that matter) to prevent pirating of his work. He was also the first composer who tried to live on the successful profits of his compositions. Had he been frugal, and not a drinker, it just might have worked (for a few years he did prosper), but he fumbled it. His last years were spent still composing, but living as a Bowery derelict. His end is not quite the melodrama of the film - he fell in his room cutting himself (not cutting his throat). Due to his alcoholic condition weakening his body, he died a few days later in Bellevue Hospital.

Don Ameche is a terrific actor, and does what he can here - but it reminds us of an extended development of his Edward Salomon (Lillian Russell's doomed composer husband) in the Russsell biography. He is talented - greatly so - but drink and ill health doom her here. No new extension of his acting range as Foster.

By 1939 I wonder if there was increasing criticism by African - American groups regarding stereotyping in Hollywood. Probably not too much yet, or at least enough for the industry to take notice. Films about D.D.Emmett (DIXIE), and other films with minstrel segments in them would still appear within the next decade. It really is not until the end of the 1940s and into the 1950s that an effect of World War II is felt - a dislike for the disparate treatment of African Americans - and begins to have an impact. So the minstrel portions, historically correct (unfortunately), were totally acceptable in this film in 1939.

Oddly enough, given the accidental tragedy that ends this film, the fate of E.E.Christy is overlooked. Christy apparently had a nervous breakdown in the 1860s, and threw himself out of a window. One would not know that watching Jolson's performance, based on this script.

The concluding moment of this film always stuck in my craw. Tragically announcing the death of Foster at what was supposed to be the benefit to resurrect his career, Christy/Jolson announces the first performance of Foster's latest and greatest tune. He starts singing "Old Folks At Home" (renamed "Swanee River" - as in the film title), Jolson starts singing it (remember for the first time). When the music reaches the chorus, "All the world is sad and weary..." the whole audience arose and sang it's chorus lines. Remarkable example of massive psychic transference, or poor screenplay writing: I leave it to the viewer to guess which.

This is hardly an accurate biography of songwriter Stephen Foster, but it's an awfully good movie thanks to its beautiful score, breathtaking photography, and scenic design. Its pictorialization of antebellum America and the South in particular rival the same year's Gone With the Wind. Producer Darryl Zanuck was especially gifted at producing these Techniciolor extravaganzas, and this one's as good as it gets. Even if one can't stand the story,--and it's a sad one--the movie is worth seeing and hearing for the remarkable skill with which it was made. Don Ameche is a pleasing Foster, and Al Jolson is on hand as Christy (of the OLD Christy Minstrels fame), and sings the songs with a gleefully vaudevillean relish which at times seems a bit over the top for the historical period. On the other hand the movie seems quite accurate in other respects and feels, to me, more like nineteenth century America than 1939.

SWANEE RIVER (20th Century-Fox, 1939), directed by Sidney Lanfield, is the second adaptation on the life of American composer Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864). An earlier version, titled HARMONY LANE (Mascot, 1935) starred Douglass Montgomery, and the third and last incarnation (to date) became I DREAM OF JEANNIE (Republic, 1952) with Bill Shirley as Foster. Having seen all three screen treatments at one time or another over the years, the vote goes to the 1939 version as the best of the trio. For this screen version, it stars Don Ameche as Foster, an absent-minded but good-natured struggling composer whose songs become part of American music, thanks to the encouragement of his wife, Jane (Andrea Leeds) and E.P. Christy (Al Jolson), the "world's greatest minstrel." Of course with Foster's popularity comes trials and tribulations, whether it be in his struggles for success, or due to heavy drinking leading to his failed marriage, but it is not all in vain. Even after Foster's death, his music lives on.

While SWANEE RIVER is more of a fictional essay than fact, and what Hollywood bio-pic isn't, overlooking inaccuracies such as Foster's last complete composition actually being "Beautiful Dreamer" instead of "Swanee River" as the screenwriters of this story depict, the movie holds interest during its 85 minutes. Accurate in its period costumes, SWANEE RIVER is given lavish Technicolor, the charm of Andrea Leeds, and the rich singing voice of Al Jolson. Sadly for the legendary Jolson, who is in excellent form both in acting and singing (mostly in black-face), this became his last movie as a featured performer. The comedy routines for the minstrel shows, which wouldn't work as entertainment today, are lavishly staged and reproduced from that by-gone era.

Of the 200 completed songs written by Foster, only a few were selected. The musical program includes: "Here Comes the Hevan Line" (sung by Negroes); "Beautiful Dreamer" (background score); "Oh, Susanna" (sung by Al Jolson); "Camptown Races," "My Old Kentucky Home" (sung by Don Ameche and Al Jolson); "Ring, Ring de Banjo," "I Dream of Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair," "Old Black Joe" and "Swanee River" (sung by Jolson).

In the supporting cast are Chick Chandler as Mr. Bones; Felix Bressart as Henry Kleber; George Reed as Old Joe; Diane Fisher as the Foster daughter, Marion; and The Hall-Johnson Choir.

Don Ameche is believable as Stephen Foster, but even today, this life story of Foster is overshadowed by his earlier and most famous role in 1939's THE STORY OF Alexander GRAHAM BELL. Out of circulation for quite some time, if SWANEE RIVER should ever resurface again on any cable channel, chances are it won't be from American Movie Classics, where it was once scheduled and pulled in 1991, but possibly on the Fox Movie Channel during the early morning hours. For now, SWANEE RIVER, available on DVD, lives in the memory of those fortunate to have seen it many years ago. (***1/2)