Swanee River
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Sidney Lanfield
Don Ameche
Andrea Leeds
Al Jolson
Felix Bressart
Richard Clarke
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Stephen Foster's family insists that he accept a seven-dollar-a-week shipping clerk job in Cincinnati, but he prefers to write songs. Stephen's prospective father-in-law Andrew McDowell has no faith in Stephen, who wants to write "music from the heart of the simple people of the South." The struggling composer is content to sell "Oh Suzanna" for fifteen dollars to minstrel singer E. P. Christy and allows Christy to take credit as its writer. Soon, the song is sweeping the country, and Stephen follows it with "De Camptown Races" and goes on tour with Christy's troup. Solvent at last, Stephen marries Jane McDowell, and a daughter Marion is born to them. Inspired by his wife's beauty, Stephen writes "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair." However, Stephen's prosperity ends when his classical music fails and the advent of the Civil War brands his music as traitorous. When he turns to drinking, Jane leaves him, but two years later returns to encourage him to write "The Old Folks at Home." Stephen never hears his composition performed, however, for on the night that Christy presents the song to a New York audience, the composer dies of a heart attack.
Director
Sidney Lanfield
Cast
Don Ameche
Andrea Leeds
Al Jolson
Felix Bressart
Richard Clarke
Chick Chandler
Russell Hicks
George Reed
Diane Fisher
Charles Halton
George Breakstone
The Hall Johnson Choir
Al Herman
Charles Trowbridge
George Meeker
Leona Roberts
Charles Tannen
Clara Blandick
Nella Walker
Harry Hayden
Esther Dale
Crew
Nicholas Castle
Richard Day
Philip Dunne
W. D. Flick
John Taintor Foote
Stephen Foster
Bert Glennon
Roger Heman
Natalie Kalmus
Thomas Little
Louis Loeffler
Kenneth Macgowan
Aaron Rosenberg
Royer
Geneva Sawyer
Louis Silvers
Joseph C. Wright
Darryl F. Zanuck
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Score
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a news item in Hollywood Reporter, David O. Selznick was interested in working on this film. Material contained in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Theater Arts Library adds that Richard Sherman worked on a treatment, but his participation in the final film has not been confirmed. In story conferences, Darryl F. Zanuck suggested Nancy Kelly for the role of Jane and Al Shean for Kleber. Twentieth Century-Fox publicity materials at the AMPAS Library note that some sequences were shot along the Sacramento River. Studio publicity also adds that Don Ameche learned to dance the soft shoe and play the violin for his role in this film. A news item in Hollywood Reporter adds that Andrea Leeds was borrowed from Sam Goldwyn to make this picture. In 1935, Mascot Pictures produced a film on Foster's life entitled Harmony Lane, which was directed by Joseph Santley and starred Douglass Montgomery. Louis Silvers was nominated for an Academy Award in the Music (Scoring) category.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1939
Released in United States 1939
