Show Boat (1936)

Show Boat is a 1936 American romantic musical film directed by James Whale, based on the 1927 musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, which in turn was adapted from the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber.
Universal Pictures had filmed the part-talkie Show Boat which was released in 1929. Carl Laemmle, head of Universal, had been deeply dissatisfied with that film, and wanted to make an all-sound version of the musical. It was originally scheduled to be made in 1934, but plans to make this version with Russ Columbo as the gambler Gaylord Ravenal fell through when Columbo was killed that year in a shotgun accident, and production of the film was rescheduled. The film, with several members of the original Broadway cast, began principal photography in late 1935 and was released in 1936.
In addition to the songs retained from the stage production, Kern and Hammerstein wrote three additional songs for the film. Two of them were performed in spots previously reserved for songs from the stage production.
==Plot==
The musical's story spans about 40 years, from the late 1880s to the late 1920s. Magnolia Hawks (Irene Dunne) is an 18-year-old on her family's show boat, the Cotton Blossom, which travels the Mississippi River putting on shows. She meets Gaylord Ravenal (Allan Jones), a charming gambler, falls in love with him, and eventually marries him. Together with their baby daughter, the couple leaves the boat and moves to Chicago, where they live off Gaylord's gambling winnings. After about 10 years, he experiences an especially bad losing streak and leaves Magnolia, out of a sense of guilt that he is ruining her life because of his losses. Magnolia is forced to bring up her young daughter alone. In a parallel plot, Julie LaVerne (Helen Morgan) (the show boat's leading actress, who is part black, but passing as white) is forced to leave the boat because of her background, taking Steve Baker (Donald Cook) (her white husband, to whom, under the state's law, she is illegally married) with her. Julie is eventually also abandoned by her husband, and she becomes an alcoholic. Magnolia becomes a success on the stage in Chicago. Twenty-three years later, Magnolia and Ravenal are reunited at the theater in which Kim, their daughter, is appearing in her first Broadway starring role.
==Cast==
* Irene Dunne as Magnolia 
* Allan Jones as Gaylord Ravenal
* Charles Winninger as Cap'n Andy Hawks
* Paul Robeson as Joe
* Helen Morgan as Julie 
* Helen Westley as Parthy Ann Hawks
* Queenie Smith as Ellie May Chipley 
* Sammy White as Frank Schultz
* Donald Cook as Steve Baker
* Hattie McDaniel as Queenie
* Francis X. Mahoney as Rubber Face Smith
* Marilyn Knowlden as Kim (as a Child)
* Sunnie O'Dea as Kim (at Sixteen)
* Arthur Hohl as Pete
* Charles B. Middleton as Vallon 
* J. Farrell MacDonald as Windy
* Clarence Muse as Janitor
* Charles C. Wilson as Jim Green (uncredited)
* J. Gunnis Davis as Doctor (uncredited)
* Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as Young Black Man (uncredited)
==References==
==External links==
* Show Boat essay by Phil Hall at National Film Registry
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* Showboat Film page, Reel Classics - photos, sound clips
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* Show Boat on Lux Radio Theater: June 24, 1940. Starring Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, and Charles Winninger.
* Show Boat: Rollin’ on the River an essay by Gary Giddins at the Criterion Collection
Category:1936 films
Category:1930s English-language films
Category:1930s musical drama films
Category:Films set in the 1880s
Category:Films set in the 1890s
Category:Films set in the 1900s
Category:Films set in the 1910s
Category:Films set in the 1920s
Category:American musical drama films
Category:American romantic musical films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:Films directed by James Whale
Category:Films about interracial romance
Category:Films about race and ethnicity
Category:Films about gambling
Category:United States National Film Registry films
Category:Universal Pictures films
Category:Films based on musicals
Category:Films based on adaptations
Category:1930s American films