Alicia I love this movie so much

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Jerry Conklin 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.

Kalaman "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.

willrams This is a slow moving not exactly true bio of Stephen Foster. However, I had to comment on it because I always like Don Ameche who plays Foster, and his daughter was played by Diane Fisher, who is the sister of a good friend of mine. Ameche does a good job, but it's Al Jolson, and his "Mammy" songs that steal the show. It seems Emmet Kelly, the famous clown, was in it, so I guess that is something to look for.

Bob Verini 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.