Jackson Booth-Millard
I had heard about this film maybe once or twice, I knew it was musical, but that's about it, I was looking forward to a colourful film with recognisable songs, based on the stage musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II (of Rodgers and Hammerstein), directed by George Sidney (Anchors Aweigh, Annie Get You Gun, Kiss Me Kate). Basically show boat the "Cotton Blossom", owned by Cap'n Andy Hawks (Some Like It Hot's Joe E. Brown), arrives in a Mississippi town for a performance. Its leading man Steve Baker (Robert Sterling) has a fistfight with boat engineer Pete (Leif Erickson), as he was making passes at Steve's wife, leading lady Julie La Verne (Ava Gardner). Cap'n Andy pretends to the gathered crowd that the fight was a preview for a melodrama performance, but Pete goes to the police to report a dark secret about Julie. Riverboat gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Howard Keel) has gambled away a boat ticket, so he boards the Cotton Blossom pretending to be an actor, but he is rejected a passage, however he and the captain's daughter Magnolia (Kathryn Grayson) meet, they are instantly smitten with each other. That night, during a vaudeville performance on the show boat, Pete shows up with Sheriff Ike Vallon (Regis Toomey), Julie, a black woman is married to a Steve, a white man, this is illegal, Julie admits that she is half-black, and Steve convinces the sheriff he is also half- black, Pete is fired by Cap'n Andy, but Julie and Steve are also forced to leave. Magnolia tearfully says goodbye to Julie, her best friend, she and Steve leave the company, Cap'n Andy takes on Ravenal who offers to help, he becomes the new leading man, and Magnolia becomes the new leading lady, despite the strong objections of Cap'n Andy's wife Parthy (Agnes Moorehead), also Magnolia's mother. Within a few weeks, Magnolia and Ravenal become a hit on the river, and have fallen in love, they become engaged and are married, moving to Chicago, living off Ravenal's gambling winnings. A year later, Ravenal loses all his money gambling, when he becomes broke Magnolia tells him off for his obsession for gambling, feeling guilty after Magnolia's outburst, Ravenal walks out on her. The dance team on the show boat, Ellie May Shipley (Marge Champion) and Frank Schultz (Gower Champion), suddenly show up in Chicago, they take Magnolia to nightclub the Trocadero to audition, but the club already has a singer, it is Julie, who has become a hopeless alcoholic since Steve left her. Julie overhears Magnolia's audition from her dressing room, she learns that Ravenal has deserted her, Julie quits to make sure Magnolia will be hired, Cap'n Andy arrives and watched Magnolia's debut, and gives her support when she experiences stage fright. Magnolia tells her what happened with Ravenal, and reveals that she is pregnant with Ravenal's child, she did not tell Ravenal due to their financial situation, she returns to the show boat with Cap'n Andy, where she gives birth to a daughter, Kim. Five years pass, Ravenal is gambling on a packet boat, he finds a drunken Julie trying to sing, he punches her escort for slapping her, she finds out Magnolia is married to Ravenal, but she did not realise he knew nothing about Magnolia's pregnancy, she tells him off. Ravenal overcome with guilt returns to the show boat, there he meets his little daughter Kim (Sheila Clark) for the first time, he and Magnolia reconcile, stevedore Joe (William Warfield) sings as the boat prepares to leave, Cap'n Andy and Parthy embrace, and Julie emerges on the dock to blow Magnolia a kiss as the ship sails away. Also starring Adele Jergens as Cameo McQueen and Leif Erickson as Pete. Gardner gives a good performance as the downtrodden singer, Keel is a good charmer with a great voice, and Grayson has a fantastic voice and looks pretty, it is a simply enough story about show business and love, many of the songs work well, the best is definitely "Ol' Man River", the dance sequences have superb choreography, and the use of colour for the costumes and scenery is magnificent, overall it is an enjoyable musical. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Music for Adolph Deutsch and Conrad Salinger. Very good!
calvinnme
This is a great splashy color musical in the MGM tradition. If that is what you are looking for then look no further. If you are looking for a story that more closely follows the dramatic line of Edna Ferber's novel you want to watch the 1936 version. Edna Ferber's heroines usually had some weakness or problem that they tried to solve by leaning upon a man. Ferber would remove the crutch (the man) from the heroine's life and, only once the woman had grown strong as a person, would she be reunited with the man upon which she had once leaned... or not. That was true in the novel Showboat, but not here. In this film Magnolia is only separated from her gambling husband Gaylord for a very few years before he returns. They both still have their youth and their daughter is quite young and almost everyone has a MGM happy ending. And the biggest surprise - Magnolia's mom turns out to have a heart of gold when, in the novel, her ill temper and constant sniping at first aimed at Magnolia's father and then at her husband, helped precipitate many problems in the first place. To eliminate any talk of controversy and keep this a big happy musical Lena Horne did not get the part of tragic figure Julie. Instead that part went to Ava Gardner.If you are going to do a musical in the 1950's Howard Keel has a strong wonderful voice and strikes a powerful pose, but that is exactly why he is totally wrong for the part of Gaylord Ravenal. I could believe in the 1936 version when Allan Jones slinks off and leaves Magnolia - he seemed like a credible rat. Not so Howard Keel. He looks every inch a gentleman and does not seem like a coward and a quitter at all, not even if he is practically pushed away.I'm giving this six stars because it is a cinematically beautiful film with a talented cast performing great musical numbers. Just don't expect the hard edges of the 1936 version.
e_tucker
It's not possible to watch this film without comparing to the 1936 version. Both films have their strengths and weaknesses and if it were possible to combine the best elements of both, I think you would end up with a definitive version. What's mainly lacking in the '51 version is Whale's attention to narrative and his inspired staging, which told stories within stories. I am missing the lover's nighttime tryst on top of the riverboat with the mist swirling around them, the wonderful montage of suffering and toil during Robson's "Old Man River", the charwoman's faces as Dunne auditions in the Trocadero and most of all the incredibly staged New Year's Eve scene which was pure movie magic. By contrast, Sidney's staging is claustrophobic and mundane, which serves well enough for the Champion's excellent dance numbers - but all that is really required here is to hold the camera steady - and well enough for Gardner's scenes because here's an actress who knows how to emote with her whole body and and is able to completely inhabit even this cramped and uninteresting framing. Grayson, doesn't fare as well, she seems lost and lacking in affect compared to poignancy of Dunne's luminous performance. To be fair, Sidney seems to have no clue how to present her character, which is most glaringly obvious when he trots her out in a hideous bottle green dress for her over lit Trocadero number. In Whale's version this scene is probably the emotional high point of the film. Dunne is framed in long shot, a tiny ethereal presence isolated on a cavernous black stage, transforming her into a fragile, otherworldly creature who just blew in from another realm. Very disappointing.Which brings me to the next problem - costuming. Just because it's Technicolor and you can showcase every noxious color in the spectrum and bring every light to bear on it doesn't mean you should. Less would have been better here, even if Gardner is gorgeous enough to carry off the most blinding hues of magenta and gold - she shouldn't have to. I often felt sorry for Grayson, perpetually squeezed into gowns that made her head look several times too large for her body.Much or the casting is also misjudged, though this holds true for both films. While the captain is written to provide some comic relief to what is probably the most melancholy of classic musicals, Brown turns the part into too much of a bad joke. Keel on the other hand is fine, though a bit too strong for the part of the weak and feckless riverboat gambler. But too much presence is preferable to the utter absence of it brought by Allan Jones. In spite of this miscalculation, Keel still manages to convey some of the wistful sadness of the story, a responsibility that he is left to shoulder alongside Warfield and Gardner in the face of Sidney's bland and bloodless imagery. Moorehead also was fine, what little I saw of her, as her part was almost completely written out. I could have done with more of her and a lot less of the unlovable Helen Westley of the '36 version. Warfield's amazing voice and emotive power was an entirely acceptable alternative to Robson for me, but again, Gardner's departing carriage,though not unaffecting is still an inadequate substitute for the original montage. Last, but by no means, least, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that as much as I admire Helen Morgan as Julie LaVerne, I prefer Gardner, dubbing and all. She basically carries the movie and I found myself waiting through scenes to see her back on screen. Although she didn't have to, I doubt that Morgan could have brought that off. Many speak of that last shot, but for me Gardner delivers her best during her final scene with Keel on the riverboat - she brings all the physicality the part requires effortlessly - proving that she really knows how to work a red dress.To sum up, Whale's version is elevated by a compelling expressionistic vision but somewhat hampered by a few casting mistakes. Conversely, Sidney's film is sunk by a banal conceptualization and only partially rescued by some lucky casting and extraordinary talent. Both films are worth watching for different reasons and beyond the obvious comparisons, probably both should be watched, as they seem to inform one another.
