Show Boat (1951 film)
Encyclopedia
Show Boat is a 1951 Technicolor
film based on the musical
by Jerome Kern
(music) and Oscar Hammerstein II
(script and lyrics) and the novel by Edna Ferber
.
Filmed previously by Universal in 1936, the Kern-Hammerstein musical was remade
in 1951 by MGM, this version 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
. None of the members of the original Broadway cast of the show appeared in this version, and Helen Morgan
(the original Julie), Jules Bledsoe
(the original Joe), and Edna May Oliver
(the original Parthy), had already died by the time of this film's release (both Morgan and Bledsoe died before they reached fifty).
The 1951 film version of Show Boat was adapted from the original 1927 stage musical 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: one of MGM's most popular musicals, it was the third most profitable film of 1951.
Although arguably one of the studio's less inventive classics, the film is more overtly cinematic than the 1936 version — the boat is seen winding its way down the river several times, and there are two scenes in which the boat is shown leaving the dock, while the 1936 film version is so faithful in following the stage play that the boat is seen moving only at the very beginning of the film, when it arrives at a river town.
The staging of several of the songs is more elaborate than in the 1936 version.
However, in the 1936 film, the staging of the show boat parade in the opening scenes was more elaborate than in the 1951 version. In the 1951 version, the parade members (as well as the actors) stay on the dock, while in the 1936 version, the parade and the introduction of the show boat company is held in the main street of the town, a huge set constructed by the Universal Pictures craftsmen.
The 1951 film 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
, Alexander Courage
, and the uncredited Robert Franklyn).
Nearly all of the purely comic scenes, retained in the 1936 film version, were removed in the 1951 film, as much of the comedy in the show has no direct bearing on the plot, and according to the book The Great Movies by William Bayer, producer Arthur Freed
maintained a strict policy of removing everything in a stage-to-film adaptation of a musical if it did not advance the storyline. 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. Frank and Ellie, rather than being portrayed as unsophisticated, barely talented "hoofers" as in the show, were made into a rather debonair, sophisticated, and extremely talented couple in the style of Fred Astaire
and Ginger Rogers
.
The role of ship's pilot Windy McClain, already brief to begin with, was reduced to just three lines in the film. (In the 1951 Show Boat, it is Magnolia, not Windy, who defends Julie and her husband Steve when the sheriff arrives to arrest them.)
The version of "Ol' Man River
" heard here, and sung by William Warfield
, is considered by film historians to be by far the best moment, both musically and pictorially, in the film. Musical theatre historian 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 version of the show
, with its tracking pan
around the seated, singing 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 stage version dealing with racial inequality, especially the story line concerning miscegenation, were highly "sanitized" and deemphasized in the 1951 film, although the interracial subplot was retained:
The film also somewhat sanitized the character of Gaylord Ravenal, the riverboat gambler. In the Ferber novel, the original show, and the 1936 film, Ravenal can stay in town for only twenty-four hours because he once killed a man in self-defense — this is the reason he asks for passage on the show boat. This point was completely eliminated from the 1951 film, and the reason that Ravenal asks if the show boat will take him on is that he has lost his boat ticket through gambling. In the 1951 film, when Ravenal deserts Magnolia, he does not know she is pregnant, and returns when he finds out that she has had a child, while in the Ferber novel, the original show, the 1929 part-talkie film
, and the 1936 film, he not only knows that she has had a baby, but deserts her several years after the baby has been born, knowing that she will probably have to raise the baby alone. (However, in all fairness, in the stage play and in both the 1936 and 1951 films, he leaves Magnolia out of a sense of guilt that he is ruining her life. In the 1929 film, however, he leaves her for the same reason that he does in the novel, out of cowardice at the fact that Parthy, Magnolia's mother, will soon discover that he is not a good family provider.)
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 shots of townspeople reacting to the show boat's arrival), the film does not give a very strong feeling of authenticity. The arrival of the boat was achieved by blending backlot
footage showing the boat pulling in with location shots of crowds running along the river bank. (For backlot shooting, the lake used in filming MGM's Tarzan
films stood in for the Mississippi River, while the real Mississippi was seen during the film's opening credits.) 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", another regular interpolation into the show, was omitted from this film version. Although the songs "Why Do I Love You?" and "Life Upon the Wicked Stage" were actually performed in the 1951 film after having been heard only instrumentally in the 1936 film, there were still several major musical differences from the original play in this Technicolor version:
The three additional songs that Kern and Hammerstein wrote especially for the 1936 film version were not used in the 1951 movie.
Sheila Clark, who played Kim, Frances E. Williams, who played Queenie, Regis Toomey
, who played the Sheriff, Emory Parnell
, who played the Trocadero nightclub manager, and Owen McGiveney, who played Windy, were not billed at all, either in the film or in poster advertising for it.
. This marked the first time that any production of Show Boat was telecast, with the exception of an experimental telecast of a scene from the 1929 film version in 1931. However, NBC never repeated the film. Several years later, the film went to CBS, where it appeared twice as a holiday offering on The CBS Late Movie
. From there the film went to local stations and then to cable.
), and for musical adaptation (Conrad Salinger
, Adolph Deutsch
). Likewise, the film Till the Clouds Roll By received no Oscar nominations.
Brazilian DVD of the 1936 version
, and no DVD of the 1929 film version). Warner Home Video
, which owns the rights to all three film versions of Show Boat, announced some time ago that they would be officially releasing a remastered new set of the three films in 2008, but this turned out not to be the case. As of November 2011, Warners Home Video still has not released a three-film edition on DVD, although such an edition was released many years ago on laserdisc by Criterion
.
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
film based on the musical
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
by Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
(music) and Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
(script and lyrics) and the novel by Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
.
Filmed previously by Universal in 1936, the Kern-Hammerstein musical was remade
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
in 1951 by MGM, this version starring Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals...
, Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
, and Howard Keel
Howard Keel
Harold Clifford Keel , known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s...
, with Joe E. Brown
Joe E. Brown (comedian)
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville...
, Marge Champion
Marge Champion
Marge Champion is an American dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue. In addition, she also worked in film and appeared in a number of television variety shows.-Early years:...
, Gower Champion
Gower Champion
Gower Carlyle Champion was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.-Early years:Champion was born in Geneva, Illinois, the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School...
, William Warfield
William Warfield
William Caesar Warfield , was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor.-Early life and career:Warfield was born in West Helena, Arkansas and grew up in Rochester, New York, where his father was called to serve as pastor of Mt. Vernon Church. He gave his recital debut in New York's Town...
, Robert Sterling
Robert Sterling
Robert Sterling, born William Sterling Hart was an American film and television actor.-Early life:...
, Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
and Leif Erickson
Leif Erickson
Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...
. None of the members of the original Broadway cast of the show appeared in this version, and Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s...
(the original Julie), Jules Bledsoe
Jules Bledsoe
Jules Bledsoe was a once renowned, but now semi-forgotten baritone, and the first African American artist to gain regular employment on Broadway, subsequent to Bert Williams, William Grant Still, Ford Dabney and others....
(the original Joe), and Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver was an American stage and film actress. During the 1930s, she was one of the best-known character actresses in American films, often playing tart-tongued spinsters.-Early life:...
(the original Parthy), had already died by the time of this film's release (both Morgan and Bledsoe died before they reached fifty).
The 1951 film version of Show Boat was adapted from the original 1927 stage musical by John Lee Mahin
John Lee Mahin
John Lee Mahin was a prolific screenwriter and producer. He was the son of John Lee Mahin, Sr. , a Chicago newspaper and advertising man, and Julia Graham Snitzler....
after Jack McGowan and George Wells
George Wells (screenwriter)
George Wells was an American screenwriter.Along with co-writer Harry Tugend, Wells was nominated for the 1950 Writers Guild of America Award in the category of "Best Written American Musical" for Take Me Out to the Ball Game. They lost to Betty Comden and Adolph Green, for On the Town.-External...
had turned in two discarded screenplays, and was directed by George Sidney
George Sidney
George Sidney was an American film director and film producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Career:...
. Filmed in the typical MGM lavish style, this version is the most financially successful of the film adaptations of the play: one of MGM's most popular musicals, it was the third most profitable film of 1951.
Although arguably one of the studio's less inventive classics, the film is more overtly cinematic than the 1936 version — the boat is seen winding its way down the river several times, and there are two scenes in which the boat is shown leaving the dock, while the 1936 film version is so faithful in following the stage play that the boat is seen moving only at the very beginning of the film, when it arrives at a river town.
The staging of several of the songs is more elaborate than in the 1936 version.
- In the 1936 film, Magnolia and Ravenal sing the song "Make Believe" just as they do in the stage version of the musical, with Ravenal standing on a river piling and Magnolia standing on the upper deck of the boat, in the manner of the Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
balcony scene. In the 1951 film, Ravenal climbs on board the boat and follows Magnolia to the upper deck to sing the song, and the two walk around the deck while singing the last few lines. - When Helen Morgan and several other cast members sing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" in the 1936 film, they sing it inside the boat, in the kitchen, (just as in the stage version) with only the last moments of the song being sung on the deck. In the 1951 film, the song is sung entirely on the ship's upper deck, taking full advantage of the surrounding scenery. The boat's kitchen is never shown in the 1951 film.
- In the 1936 film, just as in the stage version, Paul Robeson and the male black chorus sing "Ol' Man River" while sitting on crates and cotton bales on the levee, and the song is made cinematic through the use of an elaborate expressionisticExpressionismExpressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
montage of levee workers performing their tasks. In the 1951 film, part of the song is sung by William Warfield standing on the boat's lower deck as it wound its way down the river. - In the 1936 film, when Helen Morgan sings "Bill", she stands next to a piano and never changes her position. (She sat on top of the piano in the stage version.) In the 1951 film, Ava Gardner walks around the piano while singing it and leans against the steps of the Trocadero nightclub to sing part of the song.
However, in the 1936 film, the staging of the show boat parade in the opening scenes was more elaborate than in the 1951 version. In the 1951 version, the parade members (as well as the actors) stay on the dock, while in the 1936 version, the parade and the introduction of the show boat company is held in the main street of the town, a huge set constructed by the Universal Pictures craftsmen.
The 1951 film 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
Conrad Salinger
Conrad Salinger was an American arranger, orchestrator and composer, who studied classical composition at the Paris Conservatoire. He is credited with orchestrating nine productions on Broadway from 1931 to 1938, and over seventy-five motion pictures from 1931 to 1962...
, Alexander Courage
Alexander Courage
Alexander "Sandy" Mair Courage Jr. was an American orchestrator, arranger, and composer of music, primarily for television and film.-Biography:...
, and the uncredited Robert Franklyn).
Adaptation
For the 1951 "Show Boat", Oscar Hammerstein II's dialogue was almost completely rewritten (by Mahin) and the story was given a major overhaul near the end of the film; 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, retained in the 1936 film version, were removed in the 1951 film, as much of the comedy in the show has no direct bearing on the plot, and according to the book The Great Movies by William Bayer, producer Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
maintained a strict policy of removing everything in a stage-to-film adaptation of a musical if it did not advance the storyline. This left Joe E. Brown
Joe E. Brown (comedian)
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville...
(as Cap'n Andy) and Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
(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. Frank and Ellie, rather than being portrayed as unsophisticated, barely talented "hoofers" as in the show, were made into a rather debonair, sophisticated, and extremely talented couple in the style of Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
.
The role of ship's pilot Windy McClain, already brief to begin with, was reduced to just three lines in the film. (In the 1951 Show Boat, it is Magnolia, not Windy, who defends Julie and her husband Steve when the sheriff arrives to arrest them.)
The version of "Ol' Man River
Ol' Man River
"Ol' Man River" is a song in the 1927 musical Show Boat that expresses the African American hardship and struggles of the time with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River; it is sung from the point-of-view of a dock worker on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show...
" heard here, and sung by William Warfield
William Warfield
William Caesar Warfield , was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor.-Early life and career:Warfield was born in West Helena, Arkansas and grew up in Rochester, New York, where his father was called to serve as pastor of Mt. Vernon Church. He gave his recital debut in New York's Town...
, is considered by film historians to be by far the best moment, both musically and pictorially, in the film. Musical theatre historian 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
Roger Edens
Roger Edens was a Hollywood composer, arranger and associate producer, and is considered one of the major creative figures in Arthur Freed's musical film production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the "golden era of Hollywood".-Early career and work with Judy Garland:Edens was born in...
during an illness of George Sidney, who directed the rest of the film. However, the "Ol' Man River" sequence in the 1936 film version of the show
Show Boat (1936 film)
Show Boat is a 1936 film based on the musical play by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II , which the team adapted from the novel by Edna Ferber....
, with its tracking pan
Panning (camera)
In photography, panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device...
around the seated, singing figure of Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, and its expressionistic montages of field and dock workers performing their tasks, is perhaps even more highly regarded.
The aspects of the original stage version dealing with racial inequality, especially the story line concerning miscegenation, were highly "sanitized" and deemphasized in the 1951 film, although the interracial subplot was retained:
- 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.
- The role of Queenie, the black cook (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 McDanielHattie McDanielHattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....
in the 1936 film version. The role of Joe the stevedoreStevedoreStevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
(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 version of Show Boat, as well as the stage version, Queenie remarks that it is strange to hear Julie singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat ManCan't Help Lovin' Dat Man"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, is one of the most famous songs from their classic 1927 musical play Show Boat, adapted from Edna Ferber's novel.-Context:...
" 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, as is the term colored folks, which Queenie uses. - Some of the more controversial lines of the song "Ol' Man River" (one of them being "Don't look up and don't look down; you don't dast make the white boss frown") 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 film also somewhat sanitized the character of Gaylord Ravenal, the riverboat gambler. In the Ferber novel, the original show, and the 1936 film, Ravenal can stay in town for only twenty-four hours because he once killed a man in self-defense — this is the reason he asks for passage on the show boat. This point was completely eliminated from the 1951 film, and the reason that Ravenal asks if the show boat will take him on is that he has lost his boat ticket through gambling. In the 1951 film, when Ravenal deserts Magnolia, he does not know she is pregnant, and returns when he finds out that she has had a child, while in the Ferber novel, the original show, the 1929 part-talkie film
Show Boat (1929 film)
Show Boat is a film based on the novel by Edna Ferber. This version was released by Universal in two editions, one a silent film for movie theatres still not equipped for sound, and one a part-talkie with a sound prologue...
, and the 1936 film, he not only knows that she has had a baby, but deserts her several years after the baby has been born, knowing that she will probably have to raise the baby alone. (However, in all fairness, in the stage play and in both the 1936 and 1951 films, he leaves Magnolia out of a sense of guilt that he is ruining her life. In the 1929 film, however, he leaves her for the same reason that he does in the novel, out of cowardice at the fact that Parthy, Magnolia's mother, will soon discover that he is not a good family provider.)
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 shots of townspeople reacting to the show boat's arrival), the film does not give a very strong feeling of authenticity. The arrival of the boat was achieved by blending backlot
Backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio, containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction....
footage showing the boat pulling in with location shots of crowds running along the river bank. (For backlot shooting, the lake used in filming MGM's Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
films stood in for the Mississippi River, while the real Mississippi was seen during the film's opening credits.) Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
was originally to have played Julie (after Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...
and Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
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
Till the Clouds Roll By
Till The Clouds Roll By is a 1946 American musical film made by MGM. The film is a fictionalized biography of composer Jerome Kern, who was originally involved with the production of the film, but died before it was completed...
. 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
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
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
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
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", another regular interpolation into the show, was omitted from this film version. Although the songs "Why Do I Love You?" and "Life Upon the Wicked Stage" were actually performed in the 1951 film after having been heard only instrumentally in the 1936 film, there were still several major musical differences from the original play in this Technicolor 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 dancing 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 just a few minutes after "Make Believe", was moved to a later 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.
- Another little-known song, "C'mon Folks", originally sung by Queenie in the stage version in order to get the dock workers and their girlfriends to buy tickets to the play being presented on the boat, was turned into instrumental music for acrobats, seen in the background while Cap'n Andy chats with the three "cuties" that have accompanied him to the Trocadero New Year's Eve celebration.
- "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 "Cakewalk", usually performed at the end of Act I by the black workers and the townspeople as part of the wedding ceremony, was instead performed twice in this film - once by Frank and Ellie on the show boat's stage while the "miscegenation sequence" is taking place backstage, and near the end of the film as a dance on that same stage for Cap'n Andy and his four year old granddaughter, Kim Ravenal.
The three additional songs that Kern and Hammerstein wrote especially for the 1936 film version were not used in the 1951 movie.
Cast
(credited cast only)- Kathryn GraysonKathryn GraysonKathryn Grayson was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to MGM by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals...
as Magnolia Hawks - Ava GardnerAva GardnerAva Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
as Julie LaVerne - Howard KeelHoward KeelHarold Clifford Keel , known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s...
as Gaylord Ravenal - Joe E. BrownJoe E. Brown (comedian)Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville...
as Cap'n Andy Hawks - Marge ChampionMarge ChampionMarge Champion is an American dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue. In addition, she also worked in film and appeared in a number of television variety shows.-Early years:...
as Ellie Mae Shipley - Gower ChampionGower ChampionGower Carlyle Champion was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer.-Early years:Champion was born in Geneva, Illinois, the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School...
as Frank Shultz - Robert SterlingRobert SterlingRobert Sterling, born William Sterling Hart was an American film and television actor.-Early life:...
as Steve Baker - Agnes MooreheadAgnes MooreheadAgnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
as Parthy Hawks - Leif EricksonLeif EricksonLeif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...
as Pete - William WarfieldWilliam WarfieldWilliam Caesar Warfield , was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor.-Early life and career:Warfield was born in West Helena, Arkansas and grew up in Rochester, New York, where his father was called to serve as pastor of Mt. Vernon Church. He gave his recital debut in New York's Town...
as Joe
Sheila Clark, who played Kim, Frances E. Williams, who played Queenie, Regis Toomey
Regis Toomey
John Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey and attended Peabody High School...
, who played the Sheriff, Emory Parnell
Emory Parnell
Emory Parnell was an American vaudevillian and actor who appeared in over 250 films in his 36 year career...
, who played the Trocadero nightclub manager, and Owen McGiveney, who played Windy, were not billed at all, either in the film or in poster advertising for it.
Television
The film was first telecast in January of 1972, on The NBC Monday MovieThe NBC Monday Movie
The NBC Monday Movie was a television anthology series of films scheduled every Monday night from 1963 to 1999 on NBC. It was referred to as NBC Monday Night at the Movies prior to the mid-1980s...
. This marked the first time that any production of Show Boat was telecast, with the exception of an experimental telecast of a scene from the 1929 film version in 1931. However, NBC never repeated the film. Several years later, the film went to CBS, where it appeared twice as a holiday offering on The CBS Late Movie
The CBS Late Movie
The CBS Late Movie was a CBS television series from the 1970s and 1980s, that ran in most American television markets from 11:30 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. or later, on weeknights...
. From there the film went to local stations and then to cable.
Songs (as listed on the Rhino Music soundtrack album)
- Main Title — MGM Studio Orchestra and Chorus ("Cotton Blossom" and an instrumental version of "Make Believe")
- "Cotton Blossom" - Cotton Blossom Singers and Dancers
- "Capt' Andy's Ballyhoo" - Danced by Marge and Gower Champion (MGM Studio Orchestra)
- "Where's the Mate for Me" - Howard Keel
- "Make BelieveMake Believe (Jerome Kern song)"Make Believe" is a show tune from the 1927 Broadway musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.In the show, it is first sung as a duet by the characters Gaylord Ravenal, a handsome riverboat gambler, and the teenage Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer and...
" - Kathryn Grayson / Howard Keel - "Can't Help Lovin' Dat ManCan't Help Lovin' Dat Man"Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, is one of the most famous songs from their classic 1927 musical play Show Boat, adapted from Edna Ferber's novel.-Context:...
" - Ava Gardner - "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" (Reprise #1) - Kathryn Grayson / Ava Gardner
- "I Might Fall Back On You" - Marge and Gower Champion
- Julie Leaves the Boat ("Mis'ry's Comin' Round" - partial) - MGM Studio Orchestra and Chorus
- "Ol' Man River" - William Warfield and MGM chorus
- Montage Sequence (Make Believe) - MGM Studio Orchestra and Chorus
- "You Are Love" - Kathryn Grayson / Howard Keel
- "Why Do I Love You" - Kathryn Grayson / Howard Keel
- "BillBill (Show Boat)"Bill" is a song heard in Act II of Kern and Hammerstein's classic 1927 musical Show Boat. The song was written for Kern and P.G. Wodehouse's 1917 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! for Vivienne Segal to perform, but withdrawn because it was considered too melancholy for that show...
" - Ava Gardner - "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" (Reprise #2) - Kathryn Grayson
- "Life Upon the Wicked Stage" - Marge and Gower Champion
- "After the Ball" - Kathryn Grayson
- "Cakewalk" - danced by Joe E. Brown and Sheila Clark (MGM Studio Orchestra)
- "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" - (partial reprise by Ava Gardner, using her real singing voice)
- Make Believe" (Reprise) - Howard Keel
- Finale: "Ol' Man River" (Reprise) - William Warfield / MGM Chorus
Academy Awards
None of the film versions of Show Boat have won Oscars, and only the 1951 film was nominated — for photography (Charles RosherCharles Rosher
Charles Rosher, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer who worked from the early days of silent films through the 1950s...
), and for musical adaptation (Conrad Salinger
Conrad Salinger
Conrad Salinger was an American arranger, orchestrator and composer, who studied classical composition at the Paris Conservatoire. He is credited with orchestrating nine productions on Broadway from 1931 to 1938, and over seventy-five motion pictures from 1931 to 1962...
, Adolph Deutsch
Adolph Deutsch
Adolph Deutsch was a composer, conductor and arranger. He won Oscars for his background music for Oklahoma! , and for conducting the music for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Annie Get Your Gun...
). Likewise, the film Till the Clouds Roll By received no Oscar nominations.
Home media
As of 2008, this is the only film version of Show Boat to have been officially released on DVD (there is, as of now, only an apparently bootlegBootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
Brazilian DVD of the 1936 version
Show Boat (1936 film)
Show Boat is a 1936 film based on the musical play by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II , which the team adapted from the novel by Edna Ferber....
, and no DVD of the 1929 film version). Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
, which owns the rights to all three film versions of Show Boat, announced some time ago that they would be officially releasing a remastered new set of the three films in 2008, but this turned out not to be the case. As of November 2011, Warners Home Video still has not released a three-film edition on DVD, although such an edition was released many years ago on laserdisc by Criterion
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
.