Rating: NR
Genre:
Musical
Release Date: 07/29/1997
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/Espanol
Sound: 1
Run Time: 108 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
The third and (to date) last film version of the
Edna Ferber/
Jerome Kern/
Oscar Hammerstein II musical
Show Boat falls just short of greatness but is still a whale of a show.
Howard Keel and
Kathryn Grayson are in fine fettle as irresponsible gambler
Gaylord Ravenal and showboat ingenue
Magnolia Hawks. The plot adheres closely to the Broadway original making several welcome improvements in the final act (which was always a bit shaky).
Magnolia, daughter of showboat impresario
Captain Andy (
Joe E. Brown) and
Parthy Hawkes (
Agnes Moorehead), falls head over heels in love with the raffish
Ravenal. When the show's leading lady,
Julie (
Ava Gardner), and leading man,
Steve (
Robert Sterling), are forced to leave when
Julie's mulatto heritage is revealed by disgruntled suitor
Pete (
Leif Erickson),
Magnolia and
Gaylord step into the vacant stage roles and score a hit. Eventually, the two are married and for several months are quite happy. After incurring serious gambling losses, however,
Gaylord walks out of
Magnolia's life never realizing that his wife is expecting a baby. With the help of her former showboat colleagues
Ellie and
Frank Schultz (
Marge and
Gower Champion) and a behind-the-scenes assist from the tragic
Julie,
Magnolia secures work as a Cabaret singer in Chicago. Her new year's eve debut threatens to be a bust until her father
Captain Andy quells the rowdy crowd and guides his daughter through a lovely rendition of
After the Ball (a
Charles K. Harris tune that pops up in every stage version of
Show Boat).
Magnolia returns to her family, with her daughter
Kim in tow. Upon learning from
Julie that he has a daughter,
Gaylord returns to
Magnolia and
Kim, setting the stage for a joyous ending.
Virtually all of the
Kern-
Hammerstein songs are retained for this version of
Show Boat (though none of the songs specially written for the 1936 film version are heard). These cannot be faulted, nor can
MGM's sumptuous production values. Still, the 1951
Show Boat leaves one a bit cold. Perhaps it was the removal of the racial themes that gave the original so much substance (as black stevedore
Joe,
William Warfield exists only to sing a toned-down version
Ol' Man River while
Joe's wife
Queenie is virtually written out of the proceedings). Also,
MGM reneged on its original decision to cast
Lena Horne as
Julie; the role was recast with
Ava Gardner and rewritten with an excess of gooey sentiment). Or perhaps it was the production's factory-like slickness; typical of the film's smoothing out of the original property's rough edges was the casting of
Marge and
Gower Champion, who are just too darn good to be convincing as the doggedly mediocre entertainers
Frank and
Ellie. Even so,
Show Boat does have
Howard Keel and
Kathryn Grayson at their peak, not to mention the peerless
Joe E. Brown as
Captain Andy. And the film was a financial success, enabling
MGM to bankroll such future musical triumphs as
Singin' in the Rain and
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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