Directed by George Sidney, the main story in Show Boat is that of 18 year old Magnolia Hawks (Kathryn Grayson), the daughter of Cotton Blossom (the name of the titular show boat) captain Andy Hawks (Joe E. Brown) and her marriage to gambler and milquetoast river scoundrel Gaylord (yup) Ravenal (played by 50s musical mainstay and Dallas alumn Howard Keel). The trajectory of this storyline is typical: they meet, fall in love, her parents don't approve, they run off together and get married, he abandons her, and eventually they are reunited. It's probably the most uninteresting part of the film. The film's other major plot thread concerns the character of Julie Laverne (Ava Gardner), the lead actress on the show boat who is hiding the fact that she is mulatto from everyone, but her white husband Steve (in the late nineteenth century it was illegal for African Americans to appear on stage and to be married to a white man). A jealous former suitor reveals Julie's secret and she and Steve are forced from the Showboat, eventually causing their marriage to break up and Julie to develop a serious drinking problem and fade into obscurity.
As far as film musicals go, Show Boat is not particularly great. With the exception of the musical numbers sung by Julie (which I will get to in a moment) and William Warfield's show stopping rendition of Old Man River, the musical numbers fall incredibly short. Because both Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson were both trained operatic singers their numbers are sung in this manner, which makes them somewhat inaccessible to modern audiences. The songs they do sing are unmemorable and so little to sell the core storyline. There are also a couple of number performed by the Cotton Blossom's hoofer duo, played by Marge and Gower Champion. But while charming do little for the film other than extend its run time.
At this point you are probably wondering why I am bothering to talk about this film? While I think this is one of the weakest film musicals I will talk about in this series, I think some of the backstage machinations illustrate the politics of the studio era. For the part of Julie, MGM considered Judy Garland (who was on contract to another studio), Dinah Shore (not famous enough), and most interestingly Lena Horne. Lena Horne was especially interested in playing Julie, and actively campaigned for the part. As the only African-American actress of the candidates and a famed vocalist, she would have been the ideal choice. However, because it was against the production codes of the ages to show African Americans to be shown kissing or in romantic scenes with white actors, she was ruled out (much like Julie is cast off of the Cotton Blossom for her relationship with Steve). In the end Ava Gardner was cast as Julie, who was on contract to MGM and was famous enough).
Just as Lena Horne was considered unsuitable for the role of Julie, Ava Gardner also experienced her own issues with regards to her musical numbers. While not a famed vocalist like Horne, Gardner was more than a respectable vocalist in her own right, and practiced extensively for the role. Though she originally sang along to the vocal tracks she recorded for her sequences, it was decided in post-production that her voice did not fit the overall tone of the film and vocalist Annette Warren's renditions of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man and Bill were added to the final film. The likely reason is to match the Julie vocals to the operatic singing style of Keel and Grayson. Unfortunate, seeing as in the play Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man is described as a 'coloured' song and as such should be performed more like a bluesy torch song. Situations like this were very typical in Hollywood musicals, with many of the major actors and actresses of the day being dubbed by professional vocalists. If you do a search on YouTube you can find a number of these musical sequences with the actress' original vocals re-dubbed onto the film sequences. Ava Gardner's lost Show Boat sequences just happen to be my favourite of this phenomena.
So, without further adieu, you can compare the original film version of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man to the Ava Gardner version and see what you think.
Annette Warren:
Ava Gardner:
