Show Boat

With SHOW BOAT, horror maven James Whale (FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN) returns to the stage-adaptation genre of his first film (JOURNEY’S END). The second film version of the 1926 Edna Ferber novel and 1927 Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein musical takes place in the early 1900s on Cap’n Andy Hawks’s (Charles Winninger) Mississippi River show boat. Life is good for the family-like show boat troupe that includes married lead actors Julie (Helen Morgan) and Steve (Donald Cook) and servants Queenie (Hattie McDaniel) and Joe (Paul Robeson). However, when a disgruntled boatman reveals that Julie is of mixed race, she and her husband are fired. Julie’s best friend, the captain’s daughter, Magnolia (Irene Dunne), is devastated but is given the opportunity she has been begging for--to act on the stage. Magnolia’s sadness is relieved by the arrival of dashing gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Allan Jones), who is cast as her leading man. The two fall in love and leave the show boat filled with dreams--but life has other plans for them. A fascinating tale about show business, friendship and love, and the inequities of race, SHOW BOAT is an indisputable classic filled with unforgettable songs.