[1] In 1849, the song "Oh, Susannah" is a nationwide hit, but bookkeeper Stephen Foster has given his work to several music houses free of charge and without credit.

His refined true love Inez McDowell, a classically trained singer, despises popular music, especially Stephen's songs.

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Oscar Godbout wrote:[T]he music, with its universal appeal, was not enough for the creators of this bogus biography; the author of the script, Alan LeMay, with the director, Allan Dwan, succumbed to an urge to skewer the tunes with a vapid tale of the young musician being thwarted in love.

They show him as a shallow, brainless bookkeeper who tinkered with tunes when he wasn't debasing himself before a supercilious Southern belle who would have him only if he stopped writing songs.

But the songs are appealing and Mr. Middleton's portrayal of a famous minstrel compensates for much of the dullness.