Star-Struck: Showboat

Ev'rybody's Sure to Go!

It must be admitted that I had a really hard time choosing between Show Boat and Seven Brides for the number 1 spot.  They are both the peak of their forms: Show Boat as a beautiful tearjerker and Brides as a raucous comedy.  Picking one basically says one style is better than the other, and my preference changes with the hour.  So, since this series is qualified as the best Howard Keel films, I'm going to reserve no. 1 for my favorite performance by Howard Keel.  And that, my dears, you will have to wait for until next time.  

Showboat went through several incarnations before the 1951 version I am reviewing, starting with a novel by Edna Ferber.  It's a bit of an epic tragedy spanning decades and following the fortunes of a family-run show boat business on the titular Cotton Blossom, especially the beautiful and talented Magnolia "Nolie"Hawks.  By the time we get to our film, a lot of the "harsher" themes had been dramatically softened or straight-up removed: racism, miscegenation, poverty, and the ending was brightened considerably.  Sometimes it is hardly noticable and at other points it completely screws the plot.  The biggest case is the casting of Julie LaVerne with a white Ava Gardner over the black Lena Horne and removing many strong hints to her genetic background when the studio balked.  Ironically, the segment pointing out the injustices of miscegenation (interracial marriage) was sanitized to the point of making no sense for fear of.... showing an interracial couple on film.

None of that to say that Ava Gardner did not portray her part well.  In fact, she was the best performance of the film.  I grew up not ten miles from Smithfield, NC: her birth and final resting place.  I am no small fan of Ava, and she was heart-wrenchingly captivating from the beginning to the final frame.  Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson team up for the first time here, him as the charming, roving gambler and her as the helplessly naive and smitten Nolie, who serves as a somewhat more successful foil to the spiraling shambles of Julie when both woman are eventually abandoned.  Keel is true to form as the dashing sly fox- the man who swoops in and tempts you to run away even though you know its not going end well.  

Of course, the real show-stealer is the song Ol Man River, performed here by William Warfield.  The whole sequence, panning down the "Mississippi" as the Cotton Blossom takes off is just completely beautiful.  Best part of the film, hands down.  Can't help Loving Dat Man, is, of course, a classic.  I've hear Ava Gardner's original recording of her songs, and while she might not have been as technically proficient as Annette Warren, her dub, I like her version.  The staging of pretty much all the numbers is more cinematic than the 1936 version and I am glad a lot of the extraneous songs were clipped.  Even so, there are still nearly enough songs to weary you out; it teeters right on the edge.  Making Ellie and Frank a Fred 'n Ginger style team rather than a couple of hoofers was also a nice touch for the screen and their numbers are so well done I don't mind that they kinda drag the pacing down a bit.

Showboat is a marvelous film in just about every way possible.  The lush Technicolor cinematography, aided in the best way by wildly fabulous costumes, the beautiful score and amazing showpiece song, and the cast (looking only like Golden-era actors could look) gave thoroughly solid performances all around. I think it is the better than the 1936 version, it feels more like a cinematic experience, not so much a recording of the play.  The numbers are rearranged and tailored to suit a better pacing and scenes are shot so that I don't constantly feel like it's just a stage I am looking at.  It's an achingly beautiful film that begs you to smile through your tears when life seems hopeless, because there might be something better waiting for you 'round the next bend.

My Rating:
10/10**********