Cinema Sunday: Show Boat

 

For today's Cinema Sunday, our spotlight turns to one of my wife Andrea's favorite classic films which we watched a few weeks ago. This week's movie is Show Boat, a 1951 film that smushes together music, comedy and drama in one big Technicolor package. 

And there is Technicolor to burn out your retinas.  When the Cotton Blossom arrives in an 1880s Mississippi town to give a performance,  there's a big opening song 'n' dance number amid a swirl of red, blue, green, orange and purple. It hurt my eyeballs.  

We're just having a good ol' time down south, singin' and swoonin' but...

Uh oh! Racism!

Right in the middle of the show, the local Sheriff arrives to make an arrest in a case of miscegenation.

Miscegenation is a mixed race marriage which is illegal in Mississippi. The couple in question is Julie and Steve, the star attractions of the Cotton Blossom's travelling show. 

Julie admits she's part black. Julie and Steve need to git out or git arrested. 

Damn racism! 

Joe the stevedore sings "Ol' Man River". It's a powerful performance, haunting and moving. 

Cap'n Andy, denied his two star performers on account of racism, turns to Magnolia, his 18 year old daughter and to  Gaylord Ravenal, a rambling riverboat gambler who has conned his way onto the Cotton Blossom as a performer. 

Gaylord (who is way too old for Magnolia) starts macking on her from jump and Magnolia is way too weak in the knees for this charming rogue to resist. 

Gaylord and Magnolia get married, move to Chicago and the movie Show Boat is no longer on a show boat.

Gaylord's back to gambling and while he's on a hot streak, he and Magnolia are living the high life in Chicago. But the hot streak turns cold as Gaylord and Magnolia sneak out of their posh hotel and set up house in a dingy old apartment. 

Gaylord can't seem to reverse his bad luck and the idea of getting an actual job doesn't seem to enter his calculations so he ups and leaves Magnolia, not knowing she's preggers. 

Magnolia gets a gig singing at a nightclub where she is reunited with her father, Cap'n Andy who is more than ready to welcome his daughter back home.

And the movie Show Boat is back on a show boat again. 

Like the flowing currents of the mighty Mississippi River, time moves on. Magnolia's daughter Kim is part of the act on the Cotton Blossom, part of a multi-generational act with her grandpa Cap'n Andy and her mother. It's an act that gets publicity in a newspaper article that comes to Gaylord's attention. 

He's been roaming here and there, still gambling, doing OK for himself but not sending any money back home to Magnolia. 

But he sees the article and it's "Holy crap! I'm a father!" And he meets up with the Cotton Blossom, has a way too creepy first meet up with Kim and a reunion with Magnolia. 

Andrea thinks it's heartwarming as hell.

I'm thinking Magnolia should punch Gaylord in the face. 

But what do I know. 

Joe the stevedore sends us off with one more verse of "Ol' Man River".

Trivia stuff: Kathryn Grayson (Magnolia) and Ava Gardner (Julie) were both born in North Carolina.  

The part of Julie was going to go to an actual black performer, Lena Horne. But the studios were super nervous about potential boycotts in the south. 

Damn racism! 

The miscegenation issue is a plot point to create a circumstance to force Cap'n Andy to rely on his daughter and the gambler to keep his show going. Otherwise, the prevalent racism of the 1880s South is pretty much glossed over. 

Kathryn Grayson and Ava Gardner are very good in their respective roles and Joe E Brown is delightful as Cap'n Andy. I found Howard Keel as Gaylord a bit stiff, bordering on caricature as the riverboat gambling rogue complete with pencil thin mustache. And his singing voice is very much a performance, lacking a more natural, nuanced quality. It's a type of voice that might play well to the back of the house in a live production but in a movie, it's a bit over the top. 

I get why Andrea likes it. There's fun and frolic, a lot of song and dance, some melodrama as things take a dark turn but there's light at the end as love finds a way. 

Show Boat is a fine movie for what it sets out to do. 

Except for the racism.

Damn racism!