PLAZA THEATRE

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 36, 16 August 1940, Page 8

PLAZA THEATRE

The beloved and famous melodies that are America’s only real folk music, and the thrilling story of the man who wrote them, screens at the Plaza Theatre in a magnificent Technicolour motion picture, 20th CenturyFox’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 Home,” “De Camptown Races,” “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” z “Ring, Ring de Banjo” and “Oh! Susanna!” One leaves, too, with a sensation of having been thoroughly stirred and thrilled by the romantic drama ; of Foster’s story-like life. From his early struggles, the introduction of his songs by Christy’s Minstrels, his meeting and romance with Jane McDowell (“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”), and his success, to his disillusionment and disappointment, his gradual disintegration and death in a shabby Bowery rooming house, the life of Stephen Foster is made for the screen, with every element that moviegoers have demanded in their entertainment.

Don Ameche plays Foster just as he was —sweet and tender, headstrong, inspired and emotionally unstable. As Jane, Andrea Leeds is a proper inspiration for some of our greatest music. Al Jolson puts over the role of Christy, the black-face minstrel man, with a humour and vigour unparallelled in his long career.