Show Boat (1951)

  I'm going to talk about the movie.  Give me a couple of minutes to rant first.

Rob and I went to Philadelphia this weekend so we could visit some friends of his.  I had written the post for yesterday (She Done Him Wrong) and, I thought, set it up to automatically post on Saturday.  I checked it around midnight and it had not posted.  So that was my bad.

How was Philly?  It's exactly like what you've heard.  We went to Pat's King of Steaks for an authentic cheesesteak and I stood on the plaque where Sylvester Stallone stood while filming Rocky.  Yay, me.

We get home today and I go to write this post only to find that the outlet that my computer, printer, and modem are plugged into has gone bad.  I have just returned from the store for an extension cord to use until I can get the maintenance people out here tomorrow to replace the outlet.  Why, yes, the universe is conspiring against me, thank you for noticing.

Anyway, Show Boat.  I had to watch this movie in sections over a couple of days while I was getting the last of my Christmas cards addressed and generally fussing around between my place and Rob's.  It's a semi-depressing film, which I can relate to, about a group of performers who travel the Mississippi by paddle boat.  It's even mentioned in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  These traveling shows would stop at various points along the river and perform.

Julie (Ava Gardner) is the star of the Cotton Blossom river show but runs into a spate of legal trouble because she is half-black.  She is replaced by the daughter of the boat captain, Magnolia (Katherine Grayson), who falls in love with the replacement leading man, a gambler named Gaylord Ravenall (Howard Keel).  They leave after Nollie's mother (Agnes Moorehead) disapproves and move to the city.  For a while, their luck is flush but then turns sour.  Gay leaves her so she'd be able to go back to her family but Nollie auditions to be a singer at a nightclub.  Julie, slipping into alcoholism, is the main star but leaves so Nollie can have her spot.  Her father sees her and welcomes her back to the Cotton Blossom, even though she is pregnant.  Three years go by and Gay is gambling on a riverboat when he meets Julie, obviously the worse for wear.  She upbraids him for leaving Nollie and their child.  He realizes that he is an asshole and goes back to the Cotton Blossom.

The songs are okay.  There are only a couple of stand-outs in "Ole Man River" and "Can't Help Loving That Man of Mine".  This was one of Ava Gardner's break-out roles and she does a great job but the two stars are Grayson and Keel, who did several pictures together and work very well.  Definitely worth a watch.