STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1940, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“THEY CAME BY NIGHT.” The current programme at the State Theatre headed by "They Came By Night" and "Sword of Honour,” will be finally shown tonight. “SWANEE RIVER.” The beloved and famous melodies that are America’s only real folk music, and the thrilling story of the man who wrote them, will be presented at the State Theatre tomorrow night in a magnificent technicolour motion picture, Twentieth 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 Home,” “De Camptown Races,” "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair,” “Ring, Ring de Banjo,” and “Oh! Susanna!” The' romantic drama of Foster’s stprylike life is told in thrilling fashion. 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 sympathetic, headstrong, inspired, 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 blackface minstrel man, with a humoui and vigour unparalleled in his long career. Filmed in technicolour, “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. Sidey Lanfleld 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.