Swanee River

1939
Approved
1h 24m

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

238

YOUR RATING

Don Ameche, Hall Johnson Choir, Al Jolson, and Andrea Leeds in Swanee River (1939)

Biography Drama Musical

More fictional than factual biography of Stephen Foster. Songwriter from Pittsburgh falls in love with the South, marries a Southern gal (Leeds), then is accused of sympathizing when the Civ... Read allMore fictional than factual biography of Stephen Foster. Songwriter from Pittsburgh falls in love with the South, marries a Southern gal (Leeds), then is accused of sympathizing when the Civil War breaks out.More fictional than factual biography of Stephen Foster. Songwriter from Pittsburgh falls in love with the South, marries a Southern gal (Leeds), then is accused of sympathizing when the Civil War breaks out.

Director
- Sidney Lanfield
Writers
- John Taintor Foote
- Philip Dunne
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

238

YOUR RATING

Director
- Sidney Lanfield
Writers
- John Taintor Foote
- Philip Dunne
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total

Photos5

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The penultimate on-screen performance of Al Jolson.

Goofs
The film's final scene is wholly inaccurate; there was no performance by E.P. Christy on the day that Foster died. In reality, Christy actually died nearly two years before Foster; he committed suicide by throwing himself from a window at his home in New York City in May 1862; Foster himself died in January 1864.

Quotes
Stephen Foster: [he whistles a version of Oh! Susanna] That ending isn't right yet.
Jane McDowell Foster: You know, I think the Negroes would finish it like this
[she whistles the tune]
Stephen Foster: Why, that's right! How did you know?
Jane McDowell Foster: You forget, I was brought up on Negro music.
Stephen Foster: I wish I'd been. As I boy in Pittsburgh, I heard just enough of it to want to hear more. I'd a colored nurse you know. Sometimes, she'd take me down to their little church by the river, I heard "Sweet Chariot", "Roll Jordan", all the rest.
Jane McDowell Foster: There's nothing like them, is there?
Stephen Foster: No. They have something all their own. It's... well, it's music from the heart. From the heart of a simple people. That's why it moves you like it does. And by jingo, it's the only real American contribution to music. I wonder...
Jane McDowell Foster: Wonder what?
Stephen Foster: Why no one's taken the trouble to write it down; to develop the material and compose original music in the same mood.
Jane McDowell Foster: Well, why don't you, Stephen?
Stephen Foster: Why don't I? Well, why don't I?
Jane McDowell Foster: You can, I'm sure. You have a wonderful feeling for it.
Stephen Foster: If I do, it'll be your fault. You'll have to take the blame for it. Because you'll be the music. You'll be all the songs I'll ever write. Without you, I don't think I could write them. I think they'd just, well they'd just die.
Jane McDowell Foster: Then we mustn't let them die.

Crazy credits
[prologue] This is the strange story of a Northern youth to whom the Southland brought immortal inspiration.....Though his stormy life is long forgotten, his simple words and simple music live on in the hearts of the whole American people.

Connections
Referenced in Fresh Hare (1942)

Soundtracks
Curry a Mule
Written by Sidney Lanfield & Louis Silvers

User reviews15

Review

Featured review

Suicide?

My mother took me to see this movie in 1939, when I was 6 years old, at the Sanders theater across from Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I liked the music, and still do, but have this memory of Stephen Foster killing himself with a straight razor. I remember the water in the wash pan next to him filling with blood. Heavy stuff for a six year old. I asked my Mom why he would do that and she said she didn't know. Of course, later in life I found out why.

The music was great and the color very impressive for the time. Anyway, I always liked Don Ameche and remember seeing him sing and dance on Broadway in 1953 at the Winter Garden theater co-starring with Hildegarde Neff. I believe the show was Silk Stockings.