Daily Archives: March 4, 2014

Swanee River 
Directed by Sidney Lanfield
Written by John Taintor Foote and Philip Dunne
1939/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/20th Century Fox Cinema Archives DVD

[box] Way down upon the Swanee River,/ Far, far away/ That’s where my heart is turning ever/ That’s where the old folks stay — Lyric by Stephen Foster[/box]

I didn’t have high expectations  but I ended up enjoying this rather sentimental biopic.

This is a highly fictionalized account of the composer Stephen Foster’s sad life — Foster only visited the South once, on his honeymoon, and his wife Jane was from Pittsburgh, PA as Foster himself was.  Anyway, the story opens in antebellum Kentucky, where Foster (Don Ameche) is courting sweetheart Jane.  Foster is a dreamer who gets completely caught up in his music when inspiration hits him and repeatedly stands Jane up during the course of the movie.  Jane’s father objects to her marriage to a composer who is unlikely to be able to support her.

Foster finally sells a song, “Oh, Susanna!”, to windbag self-promoter Edwin P. Christy (Al Jolson) of minstrel fame for $15. The song goes on to make Christy a mint and, disillusioned, Foster goes to work behind a desk.  But later the hard-drinking Christy seeks Foster out and proposes a partnership with him.  Foster, who enjoys a nip himself, uses this success to marry Jane.  But, especially after their first child is born, Jane cannot live with his growing alcoholism.

There is something about Don Ameche that I find very appealing and I enjoyed watching him in this.  I don’t know if it was really Ameche singing “My Old Kentucky Home”.  If so, he has a very pleasant baritone.  I’m not a Jolson fan but in this case the material suited his over-sized personality.  This is nothing great but you could certainly do worse.

Louis Silvers was nominated for a Best Scoring award for Swanee River. This was Al Jolson’s last credited screen performance.

Jolson performing “Oh, Susanna” and “Swanee River” in blackface

Juarez
Directed by William Dieterle
Written by John Huston, Aeneas MacKenzie, and Wolfgang Reinhardt
1939/USA
Warner Bros
First Viewing/Warner Archive Collection DVD

[box] Emperor Maximilian von Hapsburg: [as he is being led to his execution by firing squad] “Distribute this money among your men and tell them to aim for my heart.”[/box]

Ponderous is the adjective that first comes to mind when describing this movie.

This is a fictionalized account of the events that gave us Mexico’s National Day, Cinco de Mayo.  Benito Juarez (Paul Muni), a 100% Zopotec Indian and former shepherd, is President of Mexico and leads resistence to French occupation of the country.  Meanwhile, it looks certain that the Union will win the American Civil War and Emperor Napoleon III (Claude Rains) fears that the U.S. will soon be in a position to enforce the Monroe Doctrine to throw the French forces out.  Since the doctrine only applies to foreign incursion in the Western Hemisphere, Napoleon decides to rig a plebicite and have the Mexican people call for their own monarch.  He dupes the Archduke Maximilian von Habsburg (Brian Aherne) of Austria into assuming the crown, with the encouragement of his beloved wife Carlota (Bette Davis).

Maximilian tries to be a benevolent ruler and decries the plans of the Mexican elite to reclaim lands previously distributed to the peons by Juarez.  He appeals to Juarez for cooperation but Juarez resolutely resists and eventually Maximilian adopts brutal means to quell the rebellion against him.  Meanwhile, Carlota, who has been unable to bear a longed-for child, slowly descends into madness.  With Donald Crisp as Marechal Bazine, Gilbert Roland as Porfirio Diaz, Gale Sondergaard as the Empress Eugenie and many other great character actors of the period including Joseph Calleia, Louis Calhern and Harry Davenport.

In terms of screen time, this could better have been called “Maximilian” and Brian Aherne’s performance is the highlight of the film.  Paul Muni’s direction seems to have been to look expressionless yet noble, and while he complied beautifully this does not make for an engrossing experience.  Bette Davis’s mad scene did not convince this viewer.  I apparently differ from the average IMDb user (7.3/10) so your mileage may vary.

Brian Aherne was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his work on this picture and Tony Gaudio was nominated for his black and white cinematography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f2eJa8XOc4

Trailer