I Dream of Jeanie

An interesting film, despite the slightly overblown sentimentality and romance. Great music and ballads. Disturbing slave-era imagery, and even more disturbing, but historically accurate black face performances in the portrayal of Christy's Minstrels.

The one thing I would like to know is how accurate are the portrayals of E.P. Christy and Stephen Foster? Christy's Minstrels was a black face troupe, and their performances are among the more disquieting moments in the film...you want to enjoy the music...but can't due to the irreconcilable racist undertones.

All in all it's an enjoyable film, but be cautioned that your kids might ask "why are those people wearing black paint?" an honest question and worthy of in-depth dialog to help "foster" respect for all people in upcoming generations.

It feels like a film from the early thirties, surprisingly it's from '52. I bought it for the performance of "Beautiful Dreamer."

The great American songwriter Stephen Foster (born 1826, died 1864 during the Civil War) wrote many enduring American songs, and you can hear 16 of them here, rather beautifully sung, including "Oh! Susanna," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Old Folks at Home," "Beautiful Dreamer," "Camptown Races," "Old Black Joe," and "I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair." In the context of his times, Foster did much to dignify African-Americans and draw attention to the indignities to which they were subjected, yet the film offers a minstrel show, complete with blackface and racist jokes, and even though it portrays a period in American history when such things were accepted with glee, it makes you blink in astonishment that the film was made in 1952. Even though there are a couple attempts to show the kind of misery Foster observed and apparently deplored, the movie can only be seen as a whitewashed history lesson in American racism. There are also a couple of attempts to show the miserable side of Foster's life, but the end result is a typical Hollywood romanticized musical that doesn't come close to others of the 1950s and '60s (such as "Show Boat"). The leads in the film-Bill Shirley as Foster, Ray Middleton as the minstrel show star, and Muriel Lawrence and Eileen Christy (playing the Jeanie of the title) as two singing sisters-are all talented but made few other films of distinction. Favorite line, uttered by Foster to the family of a sick Negro child: "I learned everything I know about music from you people."

Just found out on this site that the man who portrays Stephen Foster here was the voice of the Prince in Disney's Sleeping Beauty and the singing voice of Freddie in Warner Bros.' My Fair Lady. I recognized two names in the cast credits: Louise Beavers, who I knew from Imitation of Life, portrays another Mammy role, the kind that she became known for and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer (credited as Carl Dean Switzer) who portrays a different Freddie here (his character works at the same accounting office Foster works). Everyone else drew a blank though I also found out Rex Allan, who guests here in blackface, was also a narrator in films like the original movie versions of The Incredible Journey and Charlotte's Web. Mostly enjoyable musical despite the blackface number near the end that I just referred to. For that reason, more sensitive souls should proceed with caution. Made before the civil rights era came into full bloom.

This is purportedly the story of Stephen Foster but bears no resemblance to his real life. It is more than 80% pure fiction and its only saving grace is a load of his music and some very good performances of it. Foster is portrayed as a wimp who is so besotted with a girl who is so obviously a self-centered brat that he swears that he will give up writing music if she will marry him (she doesn't). Many of the facts of Foster's life are portrayed here, his association with Christy, his lack of copyrights, his not being paid royalties, etc., but the basic story is pure Hollywood. Watch it for the good old music but beware, there is a long black face Minstrel show which will jolt many who grew up in recent years. Tacky by today's overly sensitive standards the minstrel show was still alive and well in the 1940s and into the 50s. Foster died, penniless and alone, at an early age but his music lives on and is well represented in this film.

I also watched the DVD that resurrected this forgotten film. The minstrel show scene aside (and that was not considered particularly hateful by white society in 1952), the racism isn't any more offensive than anything you might see in "Gone with the Wind." Ray Middleton is fun to watch as an egotistical hambone of a showman, but he is not the hero of this story. This film's real crime is to make the film's subject, songwriter Stephen Foster, the most unappealing, weak-willed, limp dishrag of a person ever to have a film centered around him, and there was no compensating spark of personality, wit, or nobility to counterbalance that impression. There was a sense of romance about him, in a wan, hopeless, tear-in-the-eye Pierrot sort of way. But really – he was portrayed as such a sad sack human doormat that you couldn't even feel sorry for him. I found it altogether puzzling.