Show Boat

A travelling theatre boat on the Mississippi at the end of the nineteenth century. Magnolia, the captain's daughter, marries Gaylord Ravenal, a gambler who comes aboard. When it emerges that Julie, who performs on the same boat, has Black ancestry, the law against interracial marriage forces her off it. George Sidney directs. Kathryn Grayson plays Magnolia, Howard Keel plays Ravenal, Ava Gardner plays Julie. It is MGM, in Technicolor. The source is the 1927 musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, a threshold in American theatre: the first major Broadway production where the songs carried the story and a serious social subject sat at the centre. This was MGM's third time filming it. The most argued over decision was casting Ava Gardner as Julie. Gardner recorded the songs in her own voice, but the studio used another singer, Annette Warren, in the film. Gardner's recordings were only released years later. The best known number is Ol' Man River, and William Warfield singing it produces the strongest moment on screen. It was a large commercial success and among MGM's biggest earners that year. Who it is for: viewers interested in classic Hollywood musicals and the roots of American musical theatre. Who it is not for: the film softens the racial subject of its source and its Black characters follow the conventions of the period. It sits badly now.