Show Boat is a
1936 musical film about a girl who has grown up on her father's musical-show boat, which travels the
Mississippi River putting on shows. She meets an amoral gambler and marries him, but he leaves her while she is pregnant. In a parallel plot, a black woman passing for white is forced to leave the boat, taking her white lover with her, but he later abandons her. It stars
Irene Dunne,
Allan Jones[?],
Charles Winninger[?],
Paul Robeson,
Helen Morgan[?],
Helen Westley[?],
Queenie Smith[?],
Sammy White[?],
Donald Cook[?], and
Hattie McDaniel.
The movie was adapted by Oscar Hammerstein II from his play, which was adapted from the novel by Edna Ferber. The music was by Hammerstein and Jerome Kern.
Show Boat is a cornucopia of famous, favorite songs -- songs that many people today do not realize first appeared in this movie. The soundtrack includes:
- Make Believe
- Ol' Man River
- Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
- Mis'ry's Comin' Round
- Till Good Luck Comes My Way
- Life Upon The Wicked Stage
- You Are Love
- Ah Still Suits Me
- Why Do I Love You?
- Bill
- Goodbye, My Lady Love
- After The Ball
Show Boat had previously been filmed in 1929 with a censored story line. It stars Laura La Plante[?], Joseph Schildkraut[?], Otis Harlan[?], Emily Fitzroy[?], Alma Rubens[?], Elise Bartlett[?], and Jack McDonald[?]. It was adapted by Charles Kenyon[?], Harry A. Pollard[?], and Tom Reed[?] and was directed by Pollard.
It was
remade in
1951, starring
Kathryn Grayson,
Ava Gardner,
Howard Keel,
Joe E. Brown[?],
Marge Champion[?],
Gower Champion[?],
Robert Sterling[?], and
Agnes Moorehead. It was adapted by
John Lee Mahin[?],
J.P. McGowan[?] (uncredited), and
George Wells[?] (uncredited) and was directed by
George Sidney[?]. The 1936 version has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry.
