Show Boat

SHOW BOAT

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CREDITS

1951, 107 minutes, Technicolor.
Producer, Arthur Freed; Director, George Sidney; Screenplay, John Lee Mahin; Cinematography, Charles Rosher; Choreography, Robert Alton; Music Director, Adolph Deutsch.

CAST

Magnolia Hawks, Kathryn Grayson; Julie LaVerne, Ava Gardner; Gaylord Ravenal, Howard Keel; Captain Andy Hawks, Joe E. Brown; Ellie May Shipley, Marge Champion; Frank Schultz, Gower Champion; Stephen Baker, Robert Sterling; Parthy Hawks, Agnes Moorehead; Pete, Leif Erickson; Joe, William Warfield; Kim, Sheila Clark.

SONGS

Why Do I Love You?; Make Believe; Ol' Man River; Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man; You Are Love; Ballyhoo; Gambler's Song; I Might Fall Back On You; Life Upon the Wicked Stage; Buck and Wing Dance; Mis'ry's Comin' Around by Jerome Kern and P.G. Wodehouse; Bill by Kern, Wodehouse and Oscar Hammerstein II; After the Ball by Charles K. Harris.

PLOT SYNOPSIS

"The story, based on Edna Ferber's famous novel about life on a Mississippi show boat, tells parallel love stories of two doomed marriages. Magnolia (Kathryn Grayson), the sheltered daughter of the Cotton Blossom's owner (Joe E. Brown), falls in love and runs off to Chicago with a dashing riverboat gambler (Howard Keel). Their marriage is wrecked by his love for Lady Luck, however, and her family brings the pregnant. . .Magnolia back to the show boat to have her baby. Ultimately, she reconciles with her wandering mate to give the marriage another try. The star singer on the Cotton Blossom, beautiful Julie LaVerne (Ava Gardner), and her husband (Robert Sterling) run afoul of Southern law when the sheriff discovers that she is mulatto and her husband is white. They are forced to leave the show boat and flee because Southern law forbids miscegnation."
- Lawrence B. Thomas, The MGM Years

SONGS

"From its jaunty opening scenes aboard The Cotton Blossom, to its tearful finale, MGM's multi-million dollar production unfurled with all the gloss and expertise audiences had come to expect from the studio."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

"Candor compels the observation that Show Boat has never reached the screen (it was also done, you may remember, in 1929) in anything like the visual splendor and richness of the musical score as are tastefully brought together in the brilliant re-creation of the show. As a matter of fact, it is doubtful if even its first performance on the stage surpassed, except in novelty and freshness, this faithful translation that Metro has done."
- Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

"Manufactured (by MGM) and embarrassingly lacking in innocence. The most lavish and least convincing of the three movie versions of Edna Ferber's novel, with the singing valentine Kathryn Grayson mangling the Jerome Kern songs. Marge and Gower Champion come through with some lively dancing, but almost everything else sinks."
- Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights At The Movies

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS:
Cinematography (Color)
Scoring Of A Musical Picture

PHOTOPLAY GOLD MEDAL AWARD WINNER

Show Boat was the 2nd highest-grossing film of the year. See Box Office Hits

Ava Gardner's vocals were dubbed by Annette Warren.

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