Steamboat Round the Bend

Will Rogers was typical of popular 1930s stars, in that he wasn't a magnificent actor, but he was a great character. No-one wanted pure realism or chameleonic talent from someone like Rogers, just that he be himself in whatever role he assumed. Looking at a selection of his movies, you can see he took on a variety of parts, never literally playing the same person twice. But whether he was a country farmer, a small town doctor or, as here, a steamboat captain, he was always the same Will Rogers; an earthy, warm and trustworthy father figure, gently overseeing the lives and loves of the younger generation with the eye of experience. Such was the strength of his personality that he was able to break out of the character actor bracket and carry a movie on his own as an unconventional but well-loved lead man.

And a Will Rogers picture was typically populated with a fine crop of colourful supporting players. Anne Shirley and John McGuire ostensibly play the romantic leads, but their performances seem drab amid the likes of Eugene Palette and Stepin Fetchit. A few of these co-stars are deserving of special mention. First is Irvin S. Cobb, actually an author with few acting credits, but his cartoonish face makes him a great pompous villain. Then there is Berton Churchill, who normally played rather stern authority figures, here giving us the brilliant creation of a top hat-wearing, cigar-chomping preacher. Churchill's every line and gesture is a hilarious send-up of the type, and his is surely the funniest performance here. And finally we have Francis Ford, brother of director John. Francis played numerous bit parts for his little brother, almost always as a comical drunkard, but this is probably his most prominent performance. Sadly an alcoholic in real life, he does one of the few truly funny drunk acts to be seen in classic Hollywood, and it's lovely to see him getting the chance to shine he deserves.

It's no wonder really that these cheeky character actors come to the fore in Steamboat Round the Bend, because as a director Ford Junior always gave a lot of weight to such smaller players. While he didn't tend to do much screen writing, would often allow the comic relief scenes to play out with adlibbing, or simply hold the camera on the comedy actors for that little bit longer, such as that great shot of Churchill sauntering off after his first meeting with Rogers. Meanwhile he would shoot the more plot-orientated scenes with the minimum of fuss, making them seem brief and hardly relevant. This is not to say that Ford is unable to bring out the deeper emotions of a story. His masterfully economic expression allowed him to keep the human story going during simple exposition. For example, as the McGuire character explains his unintentional killing of a man, Ford keeps Anne Shirley, mutely hunched forward, clear in the background. Another poignant Ford trademark is the heartfelt singsong, in this case "Home Sweet Home" sung by the inmates of a prison. Like the improvised comedy scenes, Ford was willing to linger over sequences like this for the sake of tone over story.

Steamboat Round the Bend is among the best of all Will Rogers pictures, although it is sadly one of the last. By the time it reached theatres the actor had been killed in a plane crash. Still, even if his life hadn't been cut short, the early-to-mid-thirties would probably have been his career peak. The public's love of homely, irregular movie stars that had flourished in the depression was soon to dwindle. The age of such lively character actors was soon coming to an end as well, as audiences wanted more realism and more focused story lines, as opposed to the variety-show style movies that characterised the early talkie era. Still, touches of this older style would continue to crop up, in the pictures of John Ford up until the 1950s, and even today in, say, the Coen Brothers' more oddball productions, and this is very encouraging to see. And yet, nothing can ever replicate the experience of going back to these old classics, an age when personalities ruled the screen.

This movie was shown recently as part of a major comedy retrospective at Film Forum in New York, but it seemed somewhat out of place alongside the likes of the Marx Brothers and Mae West. Steamboat Round the Bend is an interesting and unusual film with occasional comic touches, but it's primarily a serious tale with elements of melodrama. The story is set in the 1890s, and rich period atmosphere is one of the film's strongest assets. Although it's not based on a Mark Twain story director John Ford captures that Old Times on the Mississippi flavor better than a lot of movies based on Twain's books. Ultimately, this is a rich slice of Americana with a distinct Southern bias. That's all well and good if you have an interest in American history as depicted in Hollywood films of this period, but viewers expecting non-stop laughs will be disappointed. Those of us who grew up watching TV in the '60s might find that Steamboat Round the Bend is reminiscent of The Andy Griffith Show: it has the same relaxed tempo, presents a similarly benign view of Southern life (with the stark exception of one sequence, which I'll discuss in a moment), and has as its leading man a very low-key guy.

Here, as in his other talkies, Will Rogers ambles through the proceedings in a seemingly casual fashion. He was unlike any other star of his time -- or since, really -- and viewers who've never seen one of his movies might find him a little odd at first. Like his friend W.C. Fields, Rogers refused to rehearse his scenes and insisted on doing a minimal number of takes, even if he fluffed his lines, which he often did. His acting is so offhand, and so unlike the polished Hollywood performance style of his day, a first-time viewer might mistake him for an amateur who somehow wandered onto the set. Once you adjust to his naturalistic style, however, Rogers' special talent becomes obvious, and it's the other actors who start looking theatrical and phony. Aside from the lead the most memorable performances in this film are given by the growly-voiced Eugene Palette, who gets most of the laughs, and bright-eyed Anne Shirley, who holds her own with Rogers in their scenes together.

Steamboat Round the Bend is probably best remembered as Will Rogers' swan song, the last project he finished before his death in a plane crash, but like much of his work it never had a legitimate video release in the VHS era, most likely because of the presence of the notorious African-American comedian Stepin Fetchit. When several Rogers movies were released on video a few years back the ones featuring Fetchit were skipped, probably because modern day audiences are uncomfortable with the his "comedy relief," and for good reason: watching Stepin Fetchit can be very discomfiting. Anyone who seeks proof of Hollywood racism need look no further than films of the '30s in which he was featured. For those who haven't seen him, it might help to explain that despite the sound of his name and what it implies, Stepin Fetchit was Hollywood's favorite lazy simpleton, a woozy scamp with a slow-as-molasses delivery that's difficult to decipher. He comes off as heavily sedated, or even mentally retarded. Who could laugh at this sort of thing today? In recent years a few film critics and historians (including some African-American ones) have taken a more sympathetic view of Fetchit's career, and have made positive assertions about what he was able to accomplish within the confines of the demeaning roles he was given. Well, whatever. Where this movie is concerned I'll note simply that Fetchit's screen time is mercifully limited, and that the film has only a minimal amount of racial humor. In fact, about halfway through there is a remarkable sequence in which attitudes of the Old South are satirized in a surprising fashion.

To set the scene: Rogers (playing Dr. John), with the help of Anne Shirley (Fleety Belle) is attempting to raise money to pay legal fees to save his nephew from the gallows. They are sailing up and down the Mississippi in his old steamboat with a small crew (including Fetchit as Jonah), carrying what's left of the dummies from a defunct wax museum, charging riverfront locals to come look at the statues. When they reach one particular backwoods village, a mob of men advance carrying torches, pitchforks, axes, and a vat of tar, determined to destroy the boat and punish the wicked theater folk who have brought sinful playacting to their community. Dr. John is slow to recognize the danger, so much so that our credulity is strained, but it's striking to note that Jonah appreciates the danger instantly: he knows a lynch mob when he sees one. Dr. John is eventually able to pacify the mob when he invites the men onto his boat, and convinces them that the wax figures are "educational." This impressive word plus the sight of the dummies in their tatty costumes reduces the locals to a state of slack-jawed submission. The punchline comes when Dr. John gives the signal to raise a curtain, revealing a moth-eaten statue of Robert E. Lee astride his horse. At another command, the figure salutes stiffly, and the now-awed rednecks salute in return. For the finale, Jonah, sitting at the calliope, plays "Dixie" and sings along raggedly in a screechy, off-key voice as the scene fades out. It's a startling sequence, bitingly satirical in a way we don't expect, and perhaps not in the way the filmmakers intended. At any rate, this film is well worth a look for viewers who are historically-minded, curious about Will Rogers, or interested in the mass media's presentation of race relations.

P.S. Summer 2006: I'm pleased to add that this film is now available on DVD, in a box-set with three other movies Will Rogers made during the last year of his life.

The actual last film that Will Rogers shot was this one, Steamboat Round The Bend. Doubting Thomas and In Old Kentucky which were released afterward were actually shot earlier. This is also the third and last film in which John Ford directed Will Rogers.

In this film Rogers is pure and simple a medicine show conman who has a floating museum on the Mississippi. That's just to lure the customers in, his money is made selling his particular brand of snake oil guaranteed to cure everything under the sun and where it doesn't shine.

Rogers has a nephew however whom he loves dearly and said nephew John McGuire loves a mountain girl Anne Shirley. In fact he killed a man who tried to take her away and there's only one witness, a crazy old revivalist Berton Churchill.

John Ford loved using Berton Churchill when he could and his most famous use of him was in Stagecoach as the banker Gatewood skipping town with the bank's assets. He's so different here decked out in a bedsheet with a long beard and calling himself 'the New Moses'. But this guy is the only one who can get McGuire off as he's the only witness to the homicide and the only one who can swear it was self defense. So Rogers is hunting up and down the river for him.

Which brings him into a steamboat race with a bunch of other captains and particularly a rival of Rogers, Irvin S. Cobb. Ford indulges in a little inside joke with Cobb who was a country humorist like Rogers himself. Will's steamboat is the Claremore Queen and Cobb has the Pride Of Paducah. Claremore, Oklahoma and Paducah, Kentucky were where both men hailed from respectively.

The Rogers films and also films like Young Mr. Lincoln are John Ford at his best. Early Americana was a period Ford loved and a lot of loving care went into Steamboat Round The Bend.

By the way that snake oil that Rogers peddles proves to have some real value after all. More I can't say.

Rogers is at his folksy best, but I did love Berton Churchill as the 'New Moses' who's also running his own con game. Steamboat Round The Bend is a wonderful introduction to Will Rogers. We've never seen his like again and who knows if we ever will.

Steamboat Round the Bend is one of 3 collaborations between director John Ford and actor Will Rogers, and was shot in 6 weeks in the Sacramento River Delta.

The commentary by Scott Eyman, on the 2006 DVD, is worth having apart from the film. Eyman is author of two books on director John Ford: Print the Legend, and John Ford: The Complete Films. His commentary is among the very best I have ever heard.

Standout scenes: An exquisite wedding ceremony brings tears even to Will Rogers's eyes, and he is not acting. Anne Shirley as Fleety Belle is stunning in her delicate beauty throughout. The "New Moses," Berton Churchill, is memorable in his role as a full-of-himself blowhard, as he was playing the prosecuting attorney in the 1934 "Judge Priest," another Ford-Rogers collaboration. Another reprise from Judge Priest is John Ford's brother Francis, again playing a drunk with amazing aim when he spits. A final highlight is supercharging the Claremore Queen firebox with the Pocahontas Remedy.

Some viewers are disturbed by Lincoln Perry's (Stepin Fetchit) character, but more disturbing to me was the lassoing of Moses! Scott Eyman gives a superb analysis of the dull and slow character played by Stepin Fetchit—transcending the kneejerk politically-correct reaction of today, and placing Fetchit's characterization (and that of Hattie McDaniel in other films) in a larger context. He says "might I offer a modest proposal: Is it not now time to look past the stereotypes these actors portrayed-- and look at the art, and the warmth, with which they played them." Two other films with Rogers have the same charm and image of 19th Century American values; one is the Ford– Rogers collaboration Judge Priest, and the other, also released in 1935, is In Old Kentucky.

Commentator Eyman says "taken together, the 3 Ford-Rogers films (Judge Priest, Dr. Boles, and Steamboat) rank with Ford's finest achievements." After Rogers's tragic death, 50,000 people filed by his closed casket, and 12,000 movie theaters went dark for two minutes.

Snake oil salesman Doctor John Pearly (Will Rogers) makes a bet with Captain Eli to race steamboats. He has to fix up an old steamboat. He hopes to have his nephew Duke as the pilot. Duke brings along swamp gal Fleety Belle who was abused by her family. He had killed a man. It's self-defense but the only witness is preacher The New Moses who has since gone away. Following John's advice, Duke turns himself in. He is set to hang unless the preacher is found.

There is a basic structural issue with the premise and the movie. The movie wants to be a fun, light-weight, silly steamboat race. On the other hand, nephew Duke is threatened with hanging and there is supposed to be danger. These two things often do not mix well together. For example, they need to find The New Moses who is often found on the river. One would expect John to be piloting his steamboat up and down the river spreading the word and looking for the preacher. Instead, he ends up spending his time racing and by happenstance run into the preacher. The race is plenty fun and then we're reminded that Duke is about to be hanged. It's a wacky hanging party.