PLAZA THEATRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 27, 31 July 1940, Page 10

PLAZA THEATRE

"Swanee River."

The beloved and famous melodies that are America's only real folk music, and the thrilling story of the i man who wrote them, come to the I Plaza Theatre on Friday in a magnifi-1 cent technicolor motion picture, Twer I tieth Century-Fox's "Swanee River,' the story of Stephen C. Foster, the great American troubadour. One leaves the theatre with ears ringing with the melodies that seem to express the very heart of America —"The Old Folks at Home" ("Swanee River"), "Old Black Joe." %>My Old Kentucky Homp "De Camptown Races," "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair. "Ring. Ring de Banjo," and "Oh! Susanna!" Don Ameche plays Foster just as he. was —sweet and tender, headstrong, inspii ed, and emotionally unstable. As Jane, Andrea Leeds is a proper inspiration for some of America's greatest music Al Jolson puts over the role of Christy, the black-face minstrel man with a humour and vigour unparalleled in his long career. Filmed in techni color, "Swanee River" recalls those colourful, romantic days of 'minstrels and river boats; the nostalgic touches are an added attraction to this picture that has everything else. Featured in the supporting cast are Felix Bressart Chick Chandler. Russell Hicks, George Reed, and the Hall Johnson Choir whose singing of the Foster songs is memorable indeed. Sidney Lanfield directed with' a sureness of touch and feeling for the story that makes it a genuine delight. Darryl F. Zanuck was in charge of production. John Taintor Foote and Philip Dunne wrote the screen- play, for which few liberties on the facts of Foster's life had to be taken, so dramatic were the essential details. ______