Summary

HARMONY LANE

Source Archive Films by Getty Images
Title: HARMONY LANE
File Number: DN-C-94 1 inch, Beta SP; AFP-45PG 16mm; AFP-45PH 16mm
Color: B W
Type: Sound Feature
Year: 1935
Description: B W 1935 Feature film based on the life of the composer Stephen Foster. "A minister leaves his career to become a songwriter, marries a woman he doesn't love, while the woman he does love jilts him for another. He winds up a penniless drunkard in New York. Familiar Foster songs: Oh Susanna, My Old Kentucky Home, Old Black Joe, Weep No More My Lady, and Swanee River." (MPG.) CAST: Adrienne Ames, William Frawley, Douglass Montgomery, Evelyn Venable, Smiley Burnette, James Bush, James B Carson, Joseph Cawthorn, Cora Sue Collins, Edith Craig, Victor de Camp, Gilbert Emery, Mildred Gover, Al Herman, Rodney Hildebrand, Earl Hodgins, Lloyd Hughes, Mary MacLaren, Hattie McDaniel, Ferdinand Munier, Clarence Muse, Florence Roberts, David Torrence. 00:02:18:00 B W 1935 Black church congregation, revival meeting, people singing, hands waving, black preacher with white beard. Congregation sings "Give Me That Old Time Religion". Minister passes collection plate. (Somewhat caricatural but not too demeaning). 00:06:37:00 B W 1935 Young man plays piano as young woman and elderly man look on aristocratic 19th century setting song is "Oh Susanna". 00:13:31:00 B W 1935 Birthday party. Woman blows out candle on cake. Romantic engagement scene: woman closes her eyes, man puts engagement ring on her finger they kiss. 00:17:00:00 B W 1935 Montage of people singing "Oh Susanna": several tableaux of different types of people singing the same tune: slaves Germans Brits. 00:20:00:00 B W 1935 "Schnabach's Hofbrau" beer garden men toast with beer mugs 00:28:28:00 B W 1935 Romantic kiss, man and woman in 19th century dress montage follows: steam whistle (sexual metaphor) rope tossed over dock piling church INT ECU hands, man puts wedding ring on woman's finger, excellent but brief. 00:33:52:00 B W 1935 Minstrel Show, men in blackface "That was no lady, that was my wife!" Man sings "Swanee River" on theater stage audience members listen attentively, 19th century costume. Several chickens roasting in fireplace spit black servants in kitchen of elegant home (slaves). 00:46:30:00 B W 1935 Montage of Southern scenes, intercut with sheet music of Stephen foster songs steamboat on river slaves in cotton fields horsecart full of cotton plantation home. 00:50:23:00 B W 1935 Drunk man in tophat hiccups then he sneezes another drunk picks a fight with him brief scuffle breaks out two drunk men leave saloon arm in arm 00:56:20:00 B W 1935 Man uses children's toy alphabet blocks to spell GOODBYE. 00:59:20:00 B W 1935 Man in tophat pours drink from bottle, then swigs directly from bottle alcoholic, funny. 01:02:00:00 B W 1935 Three women sing on stage wearing frilly 19th century dresses women singing "My Old Kentucky Home", shot through strings of harp genteel audience applauds. 01:03:39:00 B W 1935 BARNUM'S AMERICAN MUSEUM, historical recreation of PT Barnum aristocratic types at sideshow or freak show then man and woman walk through a wax museum. 01:08:05:00 B W 1935 "Out of Control Drunk" alcohol Montage: liquor pouring over song sheets, hands, keyboard dates, full glasses, smashing bottles...flashback scenes & voices man at desk, writing, tormented artist type 01:20:25:00 B W 1935 Minstrel show dancing "Swanee River" portrait of Foster, chorus sings, brief "My Old Kentucky Home" & "Oh, Susanna"...pioneers heading West toward big sky.
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