I Dream of Jeanie

Bill Shirley and Eileen Christy

 Allan Dwan's I Dream of Jeanie, from 1952 , barely qualifies as a motion picture. A musical based, very loosely, on the life of Stephen Foster, I Dream of Jeanie consists largely of musical numbers with the barest bones of a plot. The narrative is chiefly concerned with Foster (Bill Shirley) shifting his romantic allegiance from one sister (Muriel Lawrence) to another (Eileen Christy). It's the kind of movie in which Foster, who has been tinkering all film with what will become "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair", breaks from the embrace of his lady, says "Now I've got it", and starts warbling the title track as the closing credits appear. 

I Dream of Jeanie was an attempt by Republic Pictures to piggyback on the success of MGM's Showboat cheaply by using a public domain score. Ads for the Republic film bore the legend, "Presenting the Immortal Songs of Showboat Days". The leads of the picture all had scant film careers and were more noted for their singing abilities. Production values are minimal and Republic's Trucolor, a cut-rate Technicolor, causes the film to resemble a series of garish tintypes.

I Dream of Jeanie has been absent from television, chiefly because of the blackface numbers recreating the stage show of Christy's Minstrels. This minstrel act, devised by Edwin Christy, was the principle force in popularizing Foster's songs during the 1840s and 50s. Ray Middleton offers the film's best performance as Christy, capturing his grandiloquent bravado. Middleton was operatically trained, but ended up on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun and South Pacific. 

The film cops to Foster's lack of business acumen, but avoids darker aspects of his story, particularly his alcoholism. As an actor, Bill Shirley is not up to the limited challenges of his role. He does have a wonderful singing voice and it was the primary reason Herbert Yates, Republic's head honcho, signed him to a studio contract before the US's entry into World War 2. Shirley was most successful offscreen. He was the voice of the Prince in Disney's Sleeping Beauty and dubbed Jeremy Brett's singing voice for "On the Street Where You Live" in My Fair Lady.

Dwan does provide a number of stirring moments: Shirley singing "Beautiful Dreamer" under his beloved's window, a brawl in a tavern with a dirt floor, Shirley floundering in despair on the banks of the Ohio river, the minstrels marching into Natchez. Not enough moments, though, to redeem the endless and anodyne parlor trilling. For those interested in the real Stephen Foster, I heartily recommend Ken Emerson's superb biography, Doo-Dah!.