Show Boat

...but frustrating if judged as a talkie. I use the term "talkie" in the loosest of terms, because very few talking passages survive. In a tragic reverse of what is the case of many dawn of sound era films, the video film elements for this movie largely remain and do so in good quality, and the talking and singing passages largely do not. For example, you can find CDs of the entire soundtrack of 1929's Gold Diggers of Broadway - minus a very little - but it is the film itself that no longer exists with the exception of two reels. We owe this to the durability of Vitaphone discs and to the throw-away attitude that the film industry had towards these early talking and part-talking experiments.

There is a prologue at the beginning of the film in which stars from the Ziegfeld production do numbers from the musical, and the video portion of that is lost. Then the first half of the film is largely silent with synchronized sound effects. The second half of the film was largely synchronized dialogue, but the audio portion has been largely lost. All that remains where there is both video and dialogue are two short scenes between romantic leads Laura LaPlante (as Magnolia) and Joseph Schildkraut (as Gaylord Ravenal). Notice that the film has Ms. LaPlante billed ahead of the now well-known Schildkraut. LaPlante was a big star at Universal at the time having starred in films such as "The Cat and the Canary".

This incarnation of "Show Boat" differs from the 1936 and 1951 versions in big ways besides just the technical aspects. For one, a large portion of this film is devoted to the disintegration of the Ravenal marriage after the couple leave the Show Boat. Also, Julie is only a passing figure in this film, and Captain Andy has a completely different fate than in the latter two films.

In spite of all the odd decisions - to put the musical numbers associated with Ziegfeld in as a prologue, and to make this musical a part-talkie with non-musical stars in the first place, the film made money for Universal, largely outside the big cities where people had not seen Ziegfeld's Broadway version. In short, this is an example of a film that was dated in technique as soon as it was made, but was rushed out the door in order to cash in on the dawn of sound in motion pictures.

Edna Ferber did not write "Showboat" as a musical, but as a novel, and this 1929 silent-early talkie version fleshes out the story of a complicated marriage and makes it completely believable. It is certainly not dated, especially with the number of people today who are addicted to gambling, and it stands on its own two feet without the Jerome Kern score. I was pleasantly surprised, and enjoyed TCM's broadcast completely.

Favorite scenes: when little Magnolia is torn from Julie (Alma Rubens, who would be dead from heroin addiction only two years later) by her jealous mother (Emily Fitzroy, with her customary severe hairknot appearance), when Gay and Magnolia first meet on the Showboat (how beautiful those close-ups were!), and the ending, when the elderly Gay falls at Magnolia's feet and the forlorn Lonesome Road is sung in the background. The last scene in particular seemed other-worldly to me, and that was because of the performances of both Laura La Plante and Joseph Schildkraut, which were so solid and touching.

Especially compared to the later musical versions, which glossed over some of the more difficult aspects of Gay and Magnolia's marriage, 1929's "Showboat" has the courage to show the seedier aspects of the downward turn in their relationship due to gambling. The Grayson-Keel musical has their child being born after Gay leaves, with Magnolia never informing Gay she was pregnant. But in the 1929 version Gay is shown to basically abandon both wife and young child, instead of living up to his responsibilities to get a real job to provide for them. We should have less sympathy for such a man, but somehow, we understand and forgive.

Interesting but flawed part-talkie version of the great musical based on the novel by Edna Ferber.

There is a long "overture" that features songs from some of the original Broadway cast (including Helen Morgan singing "My Bill") and most of the film is silent. There are a few talking sequences but one track is lost (though recently rumored to have been discovered).

But being silent is this film's problem. What's really wrong is that the racial part of the story, much of what drives the plot in the stage version and the 1936 and 1951 versions is missing. In this version Julie (Alma Rubens) is fired from the show boat because Parthy (Emily Fitzroy) is jealous of her affection for the daughter Magnolia. In the other versions Julie is discovered as a black passing for white and married to a white man--a criminal offense in the 19th century South.

But most of the rest of the story is in place as grown-up Magnolia (Laura LaPlante) falls in love with her leading man Gaylord (Joseph Schildkraut) and leaves the show boar for a fast life in Chicago, where the husband's gambling reduces them to poverty and breaks up the marriage. Magnolia goes on the stage and becomes a hit as a "coon shouter," a white singer of black music.

This version also features a drowning that does not appear in other versions of the play.

LaPlante is good as sympathetic Magnolia, but Schildkraut is a tad gay as the husband. The changes in plot require Fitzroy to play Parthy as a raving hag. Rubens is touching as Julie; she would make one film after this in 1929 and would be dead in 1931 from drugs. Otis Harlan plays Hawks. That's it. The rest of the cast is made up of bit players.

No one sings "Old Man River." Stick to the superb 1936 version starring Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winninger, Helen Morgan, Helen Westley, Donald Cook, Hattie McDaniel, Paul Robeson, Queenie Smith, and Sammy White.

It's such a pity that so much of the audio has been lost. I realize some of the film is supposed to be silent, but those scenes with obviously missing dialogue, are frustrating indeed. If it weren't for that, and the cowardly decision to eliminate the racial angle of Julie's storyline, I'd probably give this version of "Show Boat" 7/10. Despite it's flaws, the performances are very good and emotionally engaging. The actors are more subtle and natural than I expected them to be. I only hope that more of the lost score and audio tracks are discovered and restored someday. Shame on the studio for not taking better care of this historically important film.

I had thought this little gem completely lost and was delighted to spot it on TCM. The restoration is quite good considering the missing soundtrack for a long sequence toward the end. The plots of all three movies differ. This one may be more faithful to the book. The acting is especially good and the drama plays out much less superficially than the later versions.

For future restoration work, it seems to me an awful lot more of the spoken dialog can be recreated with very modest lip reading. I was delighted to realize that the retiring Magnolia, singing unknowingly to a tear-stained Ravenal in the audience, is in fact singing a slow Lena Horne-ish "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man of Mine". If they can't find that soundtrack, I say, what the heck, see what Marni Nixon's doing these days and give her the job! The haunting Kern-themed orchestral score works just right.

While I agree with the critics here who question the absence of the racial subplots, the scenario holds up very well on its own.