Show Boat (1929)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Harry A. Pollard

Writers:

Edna Ferber (novel)
Charles Kenyon (continuity)

Release Date:

28 July 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Universal's Motion Picture Triumph!

Plot:

A mostly silent version of Edna Ferber's original novel, with some songs from the musical as a last-minute addition

Plot Keywords:

Gambler | Riverboat | Chicago Illinois | Childbirth | Theater

Cast

Laura La Plante	...	Magnolia Hawks
Joseph Schildkraut	...	Gaylord Ravenal
Emily Fitzroy	...	Parthenia 'Parthy' Ann Hawks
Otis Harlan	...	Capt. Andy Hawks / Master of Ceremonies in Prologue
Alma Rubens	...	Julie Dozier
Jack McDonald	...	Windy McClain
Jane La Verne	...	Magnolia as a Child / Kim
Neely Edwards	...	Schultzy
Elise Bartlett	...	Elly
Stepin Fetchit	...	Joe
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jules Bledsoe	...	Joe [prologue]
Tess Gardella	...	Queenie [prologue] (as Aunt Jemima)
Carl Laemmle	...	Himself [prologue]
Helen Morgan	...	Julie [prologue]
Plantation Singers	...	Offscreen chorus
Dixie Jubilee Singers	...	Themselves (as Jubilee Chorus)
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.	...	Himself [prologue]

Runtime:

147 min (including prologue) | USA:118 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System) (talking and singing sequences) | Silent

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Due to the unavailability of this film, several film reference books for years erroneously reported several wrong items about it, until the 1977 publication of Miles Kreuger's scrupulously researched and very accurate "Show Boat: The Story of a Classic American Musical". Among the erroneous facts perpetrated about the 1929 film: 1) that Charles Winninger played Cap'n Andy in it (Otis Harlan plays the role; Winninger plays it in the 1936 film version) 2) that Helen Morgan plays Julie (Ms. Morgan appears only in the sound prologue and Alma Rubens plays the role in the actual film. Ms. Morgan does play the role in the 1936 film version.) 3) that Billy Rose wrote all the songs heard in the 1929 film (he wrote only one).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Nola is given the letter Gaylord has left for her telling her he is leaving her, she is shown holding and reading the letter with her right hand holding the letter near the top and her left hand near the bottom. In the next shot, her hands have changed positions.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Broadway: The American Musical" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Love Sings a Song in My Heart

Nothing special, though not as painful as I had anticipated-

I had long heard about this film version of "Show Boat", and "Show Boat" being my favorite Broadway musical, I had anticipated this part-talkie as something truly dreadful to sit through. It was televised the other day, and I finally got my chance to see it.

The film is not a catastrophe by any means, but it certainly isn't good, either. It is mostly silent, and much of the dialogue and singing that was originally part of the film has either been lost forever or simply not found yet. Some of the film's two-reel prologue has turned up (both sound and picture) in A&E's biography of Florenz Ziegfeld, so somebody should obtain those excerpts and include them as part of this showing. It is inexcusable for Turner not to have done so. At present, none of the prologue in the TCM print is shown visually; it's all audio, with an "OVERTURE" card on the screen as the songs are sung. And as of now, only two of the five songs originally filmed for the prologue are heard. The prologue now ends with Otis Harlan heard enthusiastically saying, "And now, Jules Bledsoe will sing 'Ol' Man River'!" - however, we never get to see or hear this portion!

The singing by choral groups supposedly heard on the soundtrack isn't in this print of the 1929 film either; all we get during the action is orchestral accompaniment and a few sound effects. Jules Bledsoe's voice can be heard on the soundtrack at the end, singing "The Lonesome Road", a fairly good number also in the style of a work song, but no match for the great "Ol' Man River".

As for the acting, it never becomes the kind of silent film or early talkie acting that strikes people as unintentionally funny. Laura la Plante and Joseph Schildkraut are actually quite good in their dialogue scene on the stage of the show boat (here, as in the 1936 film version, renamed the Cotton Palace). Schildkraut, especially, is good, his Viennese accent hardly getting in the way. He shows a surprising and welcome ability to act "intimately" as opposed to the hammy overacting featured in most early talkies, except in the scene where he gets drunk. Gaylord Ravenal is presented as being much more of a jerk in this version than in the Kern-Hammerstein musical adaptation; he is shown being especially nasty (verbally) to Magnolia when his gambling luck runs out.

The film is directed in a very flat style; nothing in it seems especially interesting and one never becomes involved in the story; in fact, the musical version presents the story more dramatically. The racial angle in the original Ferber novel and in the musical is completely eliminated in this 1929 version, however, draining the film of much of its potential dramatic power and leaving it little more than a romantic soap opera. And without the beautiful Kern-Hammerstein score to hear, except for those two songs in the prologue and an orchestral rendition of "Ol' Man River" played as background music during the boat's arrival, one is tempted to ask, "Why bother with this version when you can have the classic 1936 film, or even the 1951 remake?"