Show Boat (film)

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Show Boat is the name of three musical films based on the stage musical of the same name by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (script and lyrics) and the novel by Edna Ferber. The song Bill featured lyrics by P.G. Wodehouse, and the original show featured two non-Kern songs, Goodbye, My Lady Love and After the Ball. For more about the musical and the plot see: Show Boat.

Contents

[edit] Musical numbers

Show Boat contains many songs which have become American popular music standards. The score includes:

  • Cotton Blossom
  • Where's the Mate For Me
  • Make Believe
  • Ol' Man River
  • Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
  • Mis'ry's Comin' Round (only partially sung, until the 1988 3-CD set and the 1994 stage revival restored the whole song)
  • Till Good Luck Comes My Way
  • Life Upon The Wicked Stage
  • I Might Fall Back On You
  • C'mon, Folks (Queenie's Ballyhoo)
  • You Are Love
  • At the Chicago World's Fair
  • Why Do I Love You?
  • Bill
  • Goodbye, My Lady Love (by Joseph Howard - a popular 1890's dance number interpolated into the score)
  • After The Ball (by Charles K. Harris - interpolated from the 1890's musical A Trip to Chinatown)

Kern and Hammerstein wrote an additional song for the original London production of the show in 1928, Dance Away the Night. While always used in London productions of the show, the song has never been heard in an American production.

There are also three songs written by Kern and Hammerstein for the 1936 film version:

  • I Have The Room Above Her (a duet for Magnolia and Ravenal)
  • Gallivantin' Around (a blackface number sung onstage by Magnolia)
  • Ah Still Suits Me (a duet for Joe and Queenie, written especially to expand both their roles)

And there is a song written especially by Kern and Hammerstein for the 1946 Broadway revival, Nobody Else But Me, sung by Kim (Magnolia's daughter). It is the last song Kern ever wrote.

[edit] Film versions

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss)

Show Boat has been made into a movie three times, unless one counts the mini-version seen in Till the Clouds Roll By as a film version of the show.

[edit] 1929 Version

Show Boat
Directed by Harry A. Pollard
Produced by Carl Laemmle
Written by Edna Ferber (novel)
Charles Kenyon (continuity)
Starring Laura La Plante
Joseph Schildkraut
Emily Fitzroy
Otis Harlan
Music by Joseph Cherniavsky
Jerome Kern
Cinematography Gilbert Warrenton
Editing by Daniel Mandell
Release date(s) 1929
Running time 129 minutes without prologue, approx. 146 minutes with prologue, approx. 114 minutes without sound sequences
Country Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Language English
IMDb profile

Edna Ferber's novel Show Boat was filmed in 1929 by Universal Pictures, with a "sanitized" story line. The 1929 film is not really a version of the musical at all; its plot line sticks much closer to the novel than to the stage production, but is not as controversial as either one. As in the novel (but not the show), Magnolia's childhood is depicted, and the scenes with Julie take place while Magnolia is still a little girl. The interracial love story between Julie and her husband Steve, the section of Ferber's novel that made the stage musical so unusual for its time, was completely dropped from the 1929 film to appease censors and Southern audiences, and Julie in this version was evicted from the boat because of Parthy's jealousy over her relationship with Magnolia (to whom Julie is a sort of surrogate mother and confidante). Again, as in the novel but not the musical, both Cap'n Andy and Parthy die - the musical carefully avoided any of the four deaths mentioned in Ferber's novel - despite the fact that the story spans forty years (in the novel, the span is a decade longer). However, in a nod to the stage musical, Ravenal and Magnolia are reunited on the show boat at the end, whereas in the novel, Ravenal not only never returns to Magnolia, but dies in San Francisco, and Magnolia returns to Mississippi to run the show boat alone after Parthy's death.

The 1929 film version stars Laura La Plante, Joseph Schildkraut, Otis Harlan, Emily Fitzroy, Alma Rubens, Elise Bartlett, Stepin Fetchit, and Jack McDonald. It was adapted by Charles Kenyon, Harry A. Pollard, and Tom Reed and was directed by Pollard.

Because these were the years in which films were making a transition to sound, the 1929 Show Boat was made as a silent film, but the studio panicked when they realized that audiences might be expecting a talking picture version. To safeguard against this, several scenes were then reshot to include about thirty minutes of dialogue and singing. Because of the success of the stage musical, which was playing on Broadway at the same time that the film was being shot, a two-reel sound prologue, featuring original Broadway cast members Helen Morgan, Jules Bledsoe and Tess Gardella singing five songs from the show, was also added, and the movie was released both as a part-talkie and as a silent film without the prologue. Three of the songs heard in the prologue were not heard in the film proper. All of the original stage score, except for the five songs alluded to above, was replaced by both spirituals and popular songs written by other songwriters, and largely because of this, the 1929 Show Boat was not a success. It is likely, though, that the fact that it was a part-talkie may have played a part in its failure. The then-recent 1929 film version of The Desert Song, an all-sound film, had been a huge success, and audiences were no longer willing to accept part-talking musical films.

This was the only film version of Show Boat to be given a road show presentation, and the only one of the three film versions to run over two hours (the stage version ran three hours originally, and was filmed in 1936 and 1951 at a length of slightly less than two hours).

The 1929 movie was long considered a lost film, but most of it has since been recovered, although large portions of the sound track are still missing as of 2006. What has so far been recovered of the film turns up on television very occasionally, on Turner Classic Movies.

[edit] Cast

(first billed only)

[edit] 1936 Version

Show Boat
Directed by James Whale
Produced by Carl Laemmle Jr.
Written by Edna Ferber (novel)
Oscar Hammerstein II
Starring Irene Dunne
Allan Jones
Charles Winninger
Paul Robeson
Helen Morgan
Helen Westley
Hattie McDaniel
Queenie Smith
Sammy White
Music by Jerome Kern
Cinematography John J. Mescall
Editing by Bernard W. Burton
Ted Kent
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) 1936
Running time 113 minutes
Country Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Language English
IMDb profile

The 1936 film version, also from Universal, is, for the most part, a faithful adaptation of the famed Broadway musical version of the novel, and retains the interracial subplot so important to both the novel and the show. Of course, this version, having been made in 1936, is not a silent picture at all. Magnolia Hawks is an eighteen-year-old on her family's show boat, the Cotton Palace (renamed from the stage original's Cotton Blossom) which travels the Mississippi River putting on shows. She meets Gaylord Ravenal, a charming gambler, and marries him. Together with their baby daughter, the couple leaves the boat and moves to Chicago, where they live off Gaylord's gambling winnings. After about ten years, he experiences an especially bad losing streak and leaves Magnolia, out of a sense of guilt that he is ruining her life because of his losses. Magnolia is forced to bring up her young daughter alone, but is reunited with the repentant Ravenal after twenty-three years. In a parallel plot, Julie LaVerne (the showboat's leading actress, who is part African-American, but "passing" as white) is forced to leave the boat because of her background, taking Steve Baker (her white husband, to whom, under the state's law, she is illegally married) with her. Julie is eventually also abandoned by her husband, and she consequently becomes an alcoholic, from which she presumably never recovers. But she enables Magnolia to become a success on the stage in Chicago after Ravenal has abandoned her. In the film's most significant change from the show, the couple is reunited at the theatre in which Kim, their daughter, is starring in her first Broadway show, rather than back on the show boat, as in all other versions.

This film version of "Show Boat" stars Irene Dunne and Allan Jones, with Charles Winninger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan, Helen Westley, Queenie Smith, Sammy White, Donald Cook, Arthur Hohl, and Hattie McDaniel, and was directed by James Whale, who tried to bring as many people from the stage production as he could to work on the film. Winninger, Morgan and White had all appeared in both the original 1927 stage production and the 1932 stage revival. Robeson, for whom the role of Joe was actually written, had appeared in the show onstage in London in 1928 and in the Broadway revival of 1932. Dunne understudied Magnolia on Broadway and toured the U.S. in the role. The 1936 film enlisted the services of the show's original orchestrator, Robert Russell Bennett, and its original conductor, Victor Baravalle. The screenplay for the film was written by Hammerstein.

The songs were performed in a manner very similar to the way they were done in the original stage version, not counting the three new songs written for the film, of course. Many of the show's original vocal arrangements (by an uncredited Will Vodery) were retained in the film. "Why Do I Love You?" had been filmed in a new setting - inside a running automobile - but was cut just before the film's release to tighten the running time. There is no word on whether or not this footage has survived.

According to film historian Miles Kreuger in his book Show Boat: The History of a Classic American Musical, great care was taken by director James Whale to insure a feeling of complete authenticity in the set and costume design for the 1936 film.

The 1936 version of "Show Boat" is considered by nearly all film critics to be one of the classic film musicals of all time, and one of the best stage-to-film adaptations ever made. Ten numbers from the stage score are actually sung (with three others heard only as background music). Except for the final sequence and the three additional songs written especially for the film by Kern and Hammerstein, it follows the stage musical extremely closely, unlike the 1951 version released by MGM. It also retains much of the comedy in the show. Due to time constraints, Whale was forced to delete much of his ending sequence, including a "modern" dance number to contrast with the romantic, "Old South" production number we see Kim starring in, and which was intended to highlight African-American contributions to dance and music. In 1996, this version of the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Show Boat was successful at the box office, but was withdrawn from circulation after MGM bought the rights so that they could film their own remake. The controversy surrounding Paul Robeson's supposed Communist leanings further assured that the film would not be seen for a long time, and it was not widely seen again until after Robeson's death in 1976. In 1983 it made its debut on cable television.

In 2006 this version of Show Boat ranked #24 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.

[edit] Cast

(first billed only)

[edit] 1946 - The version seen in Till the Clouds Roll By

A significant but miniaturized rendition of the show has been included in MGM 's 1946 Technicolor movie Till the Clouds Roll By, which tells a fictional story of Jerome Kern's life. The Show Boat segment, which takes up the first fifteen minutes of the 137-minute film, is rather a medley of several of the songs, performed in costume and against stage sets, than an actual film version of the show. It is supposed to be a re-creation of the show's opening night on Broadway in 1927. Lena Horne played Julie, while Kathryn Grayson had the role of Magnolia, Tony Martin portrayed Gaylord and Virginia O'Brien was Ellie. African-American actor and baritone Caleb Peterson sang "Ol' Man River" in the Show Boat sequence, but Frank Sinatra reprised it in the movie's finale. Parts of this mini-rendition were later included into one of the That's Entertainment! compilation movies.

[edit] 1951 Version

Show Boat
Image:Show boat.jpeg
French film poster
This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted after seven days from the date of nomination.
Directed by George Sidney
Produced by Arthur Freed
Written by Oscar Hammerstein II
Edna Ferber
John Lee Mahin
Starring Kathryn Grayson
Ava Gardner
Howard Keel
Joe E. Brown
Marge Champion
Gower Champion
Agnes Moorehead
William Warfield
Music by Jerome Kern
Cinematography Charles Rosher
Distributed by MGM
Release date(s) 1951
Running time 107 min.
Country Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Language English
IMDb profile

"Show Boat" was remade in 1951 by MGM in Technicolor, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, and Howard Keel, with Joe E. Brown, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, William Warfield, Robert Sterling, Agnes Moorehead and Leif Erickson. The film was the first screen version of Show Boat not to include any of the actors who had appeared in the original 1927 stage production (if one does not count Till the Clouds Roll By). It was adapted by John Lee Mahin after Jack McGowan and George Wells had turned in two discarded screenplays, and was directed by George Sidney. Filmed in the typical MGM lavish style, this version is the most financially successful of the film adaptations of the play, and is one of MGM's most popular musicals, though arguably one of the studio's less inventive ones. It was the first film version of "Show Boat" not to feature Robert Russell Bennett's stage orchestrations in one form or another (the orchestrations in this film were done by Conrad Salinger). Oscar Hammerstein II's dialogue was almost completely rewritten (by Mahin), the story was given a major overhaul near the end of the film and the changes are considered to make this version of the story quite distinct from other versions. Changes included keeping the characters of Magnolia and Gaylord significantly younger at the end than in the play, and the expansion of the role of Julie to give her character greater depth. Kim, Magnolia and Ravenal's daughter, appears only as a baby and a little girl in this version. Nearly all of the purely comic scenes were removed, as much of the comedy in the show has no direct bearing on the plot. This left Joe E. Brown (as Cap'n Andy) and Agnes Moorehead (as Parthy) with far less to do than they would otherwise have had, and turned the characters of Frank and Ellie (played by Gower and Marge Champion) into a relatively serious song-and-dance team rather than a comic team who happened to dance.

The version of "Ol' Man River" heard here is considered by film historians to be by far the best moment, both musically and pictorially, in the film. Miles Kreuger, who had many harsh words for the 1951 Show Boat in his 1977 book Show Boat: The History of a Classic American Musical nevertheless had nothing but high praise for this sequence. It was staged and directed by an uncredited Roger Edens during an illness of George Sidney, who directed the rest of the film. However, the "Ol' Man River" sequence in the 1936 film, with its tracking pan around the seated figure of Paul Robeson, and its expressionistic montages of field and dock workers performing their tasks, is perhaps even more highly regarded.

The aspects of the original story dealing with racial inequality, especially the story line concerning miscegenation, were highly "sanitized" and deemphasized in the 1951 film:

  • During the miscegenation scene (in which Julie's husband is supposed to suck blood from her hand so that he can truthfully claim that he has "Negro" blood in him), he is seen pricking her finger with what looks like a sewing pin and sucking it, rather than using an ominous-looking switchblade, as in the play and the 1936 film, to cut her hand with.
  • Queenie (an uncredited Frances E. Williams) has been reduced to literally a bit part, and she practically disappears from the story after the first ten minutes, unlike the character in all stage versions and Hattie McDaniel in the 1936 film version. The role of Joe (played by the then-unknown William Warfield) is also substantially reduced in the 1951 film, especially in comparison to Paul Robeson, whose screen time playing the same role in the 1936 film had been markedly increased because he was now a major star.
  • In the 1936 "Show Boat", as well as the stage version, Queenie remarks that it is strange to hear Julie singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" because only black people know the song, thereby foreshadowing the revelation of Julie's mixed blood. This remark is completely left out of the MGM version.
  • Some of the more controversial lines of the song "Ol' Man River" are no longer heard, and Queenie and Joe do not sing their section of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", as they do in all stage versions and in the 1936 film.
  • There is no African-American chorus in the 1951 version, and the levee workers are not seen nearly as much in the 1951 film as in the 1936 one. An offscreen, "disembodied" chorus is heard during "Ol' Man River", instead of the usual group of dock workers who are supposed to accompany deckhand Joe in the song. (The same type of chorus is heard later, in a choral reprise of "Make Believe" accompanying a montage which shows the increasing success of Magnolia and Ravenal as actors on the boat, and again at the end of the movie, in Warfield's final reprise of "Ol' Man River".)

The 1951 movie is also extremely glossy, smoothing over the poverty depicted more tellingly in the 1936 version, and despite some (brief) actual location shooting (primarily in the opening shots of townspeople reacting to the show boat's arrival), the film does not give a very strong feeling of authenticity. Lena Horne was originally to have played Julie (after Dinah Shore and Judy Garland were passed over) as she had in the brief segment of the play featured in the 1946 Jerome Kern biopic Till the Clouds Roll By. But studio executives were nervous about casting a glamorous black actress in one of the lead roles, so Gardner was chosen instead. Gardner's singing voice was later dubbed by vocalist Annette Warren; her original rendition of one of the musical numbers appeared in the compilation film That's Entertainment! III and is considered by some to be superior to the version used in the film. Gardner's vocals were included on the soundtrack album for the movie, and in an autobiography written not long before her death, Gardner reported she was still receiving royalties from the release.

Eleven numbers from the stage score were sung in this film. As in all productions of the musical, the song "After the Ball" was again interpolated into the story, but "Goodbye My Lady Love" was omitted from this film version. Although three songs from the stage version, "I Might Fall Back on You", "Why Do I Love You?" , and "Life Upon the Wicked Stage" were brought back to the score after having been omitted from the 1936 film, there were still several major musical differences from the original play in this 1951 version:

  • The opening song, "Cotton Blossom", rather than being sung by the black chorus and by the townspeople who witness the show boat's arrival, was sung by a group of singers and dancers in flashy costumes filing out of the boat. This required the omission of half the song, plus a small change in the song's remaining lyrics.
  • "Ol' Man River", instead of being sung right after "Make Believe", was moved to a scene taking place in the pre-dawn early morning, in which Joe sadly watches Julie and her husband leave the boat because of their interracial marriage. Thus, the song became Joe's reaction to this event. In the 1951 version, it is sung only twice, rather than being sung complete once and then partially reprised several times throughout the story, as in the play and the 1936 film.
  • Because of the reduction of both Joe and Queenie's roles, as well as the absence of an African-American chorus, "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" became a song for only Julie and Magnolia, while the deckhands relaxing on the boat provided their own instrumental accompaniment, but did not sing.
  • "Life Upon the Wicked Stage", rather than being sung by Ellie to a group of worshipful fans curious about stage life, was moved to the New Year's Eve scene at the Trocadero nightclub, to be sung and danced by Ellie and Frank in the spot in which the two are originally supposed to sing "Goodbye My Lady Love".
  • The little-known song "I Might Fall Back On You", another duet for Ellie and Frank, was sung as a number on the stage of the show boat, instead of as a "character song" for the two to sing outside the box office, as originally written.
  • "Make Believe" is reprised by Ravenal when he returns at the end, rather than when he is saying farewell to his daughter just before he deserts her and Magnolia.

The three additional songs that Kern and Hammerstein wrote especially for the 1936 film version were not used in the 1951 movie.

[edit] Cast

(first billed only)

[edit] Academy Awards

None of the film versions of Show Boat have won Oscars, and only the 1951 film was nominated - for photography (Charles Rosher), and for musical adaptation (Conrad Salinger, Adolph Deutsch). Likewise, the film Till the Clouds Roll By received no Oscar nominations.

[edit] References

  • Miles Kreuger Show Boat: The Story of a Classic American Musical (Oxford 1977, reprinted by Da Capo Press)[1]

[edit] External links

  • Showboat Film page, Reel Classics - photos, sound clips
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