Show Boat (1929)
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:02 pm
The 1929 Show Boat is really much better than various historians have pronounced; it is a nicely-wrought document of human emotions and human conflict, with forceful and memorable uses of montage and a particularly good performance from Laura La Plante. If you are expecting that the picture will follow the plot of either musical remake, you will be disillusioned and distracted from the real virtues of Harry Pollard’s rendition.
Let’s get the big plot differences out of the way (caveat spoilers): Steve Baker is nowhere to be seen, and the interracial aspect of the plot is eliminated (at least in the general-release version that survives). Parthy pronounces Julie a “trollop” and ejects her from the show boat for being too close to Magnolia and seeming to take Parthy’s place (the possibility of Julie being partly black is never mentioned). The 1929 film concentrates squarely on Magnolia and Gaylord Ravenal, along with their mutual conflicts with Parthy. Unlike in the later film versions (but as in the novel), Captain Andy is drowned immediately after Kim’s birth and the character of Hetty Chilson is retained. Here, however, Julie *is* Hetty, not merely her secretary. There is a vague hint that Julie might actually be Magnolia’s mother, in a moving scene where Alma Rubens’s tears fall on a picture of Magnolia as a young girl. Joe and Queenie play a negligible role in the surviving version.
To enjoy the picture, you really have to understand it as a filming of the novel (with modifications) rather than the musical per se, although selections from Kern’s score come and go in the synchronised track. The silent and speaking sequences are laced together nicely, and both are directed equally well. We first hear Laura La Plante and Joseph Schildkraut speak during one of the melodrama sequences, and I at first wondered if it was a good idea to introduce their voices to the movie-going public using these lines! But the charm of the scene comes through when Ravenal begins whispering to Magnolia between their lines, finally proposing to her. We become quite deeply invested in their lives, as Ravenal’s good and lean times dictate that they stay in luxurious or dismal hotels. The transition between the two comes with Kim sleeping: there’s a perceptible shift between the beds she’s in, but we don’t notice the difference in surroundings until the camera pulls back. Pollard (or his editor, or the scenarist) uses a whirlpool as a transitional motif between several scenes.
Discussion of the 1929 filming cannot be quite complete without discussing the fragmentary soundtrack, at least in the print TCM aired this evening. The print was worn in certain sections, with a few jump cuts and abrupt transitions, but the cinematography of the paddle wheel and river shots were appropriately luminous. I’ve never heard the full story of where this print came from; the opening titles are reconstructed (they contain a 1956 copyright renewal notice), so I almost wonder if portions of this copy came from an overseas archive. Most of the captions looked original, nonetheless. The first sound sequence—from the melodrama up to Ravenal and Magnolia’s elopement—is aurally complete. The second long stretch of speaking is silent after Magnolia confronts her husband about his gambling and does not regain its sound until the last reel or so. But even here, I’m not entirely sure what’s original and what isn’t—there are no titles, so these scenes must have been sound originally, yet there is no dialogue and the action on the screen doesn’t entirely mesh with the musical score. Even where the original dialogue was not available to be printed on the screen, there is no real misunderstanding of what’s going on. Laura La Plante does very nicely with her lines, putting the right emotions into them. Schildkraut had ever so slight a German accent, but he did well, too—even though John Boles might have been a more obvious choice for Ravenal. The final scene, with a spiritual on the soundtrack and the Ravenals inching towards each other for a reunion, is a lovely and moving piece of cinema.
I could have sworn I read something a few years ago about more of the soundtrack and/or picture being rediscovered. Can anyone enlighten on that subject or on the preservation history of this title?
-Harold
Let’s get the big plot differences out of the way (caveat spoilers): Steve Baker is nowhere to be seen, and the interracial aspect of the plot is eliminated (at least in the general-release version that survives). Parthy pronounces Julie a “trollop” and ejects her from the show boat for being too close to Magnolia and seeming to take Parthy’s place (the possibility of Julie being partly black is never mentioned). The 1929 film concentrates squarely on Magnolia and Gaylord Ravenal, along with their mutual conflicts with Parthy. Unlike in the later film versions (but as in the novel), Captain Andy is drowned immediately after Kim’s birth and the character of Hetty Chilson is retained. Here, however, Julie *is* Hetty, not merely her secretary. There is a vague hint that Julie might actually be Magnolia’s mother, in a moving scene where Alma Rubens’s tears fall on a picture of Magnolia as a young girl. Joe and Queenie play a negligible role in the surviving version.
To enjoy the picture, you really have to understand it as a filming of the novel (with modifications) rather than the musical per se, although selections from Kern’s score come and go in the synchronised track. The silent and speaking sequences are laced together nicely, and both are directed equally well. We first hear Laura La Plante and Joseph Schildkraut speak during one of the melodrama sequences, and I at first wondered if it was a good idea to introduce their voices to the movie-going public using these lines! But the charm of the scene comes through when Ravenal begins whispering to Magnolia between their lines, finally proposing to her. We become quite deeply invested in their lives, as Ravenal’s good and lean times dictate that they stay in luxurious or dismal hotels. The transition between the two comes with Kim sleeping: there’s a perceptible shift between the beds she’s in, but we don’t notice the difference in surroundings until the camera pulls back. Pollard (or his editor, or the scenarist) uses a whirlpool as a transitional motif between several scenes.
Discussion of the 1929 filming cannot be quite complete without discussing the fragmentary soundtrack, at least in the print TCM aired this evening. The print was worn in certain sections, with a few jump cuts and abrupt transitions, but the cinematography of the paddle wheel and river shots were appropriately luminous. I’ve never heard the full story of where this print came from; the opening titles are reconstructed (they contain a 1956 copyright renewal notice), so I almost wonder if portions of this copy came from an overseas archive. Most of the captions looked original, nonetheless. The first sound sequence—from the melodrama up to Ravenal and Magnolia’s elopement—is aurally complete. The second long stretch of speaking is silent after Magnolia confronts her husband about his gambling and does not regain its sound until the last reel or so. But even here, I’m not entirely sure what’s original and what isn’t—there are no titles, so these scenes must have been sound originally, yet there is no dialogue and the action on the screen doesn’t entirely mesh with the musical score. Even where the original dialogue was not available to be printed on the screen, there is no real misunderstanding of what’s going on. Laura La Plante does very nicely with her lines, putting the right emotions into them. Schildkraut had ever so slight a German accent, but he did well, too—even though John Boles might have been a more obvious choice for Ravenal. The final scene, with a spiritual on the soundtrack and the Ravenals inching towards each other for a reunion, is a lovely and moving piece of cinema.
I could have sworn I read something a few years ago about more of the soundtrack and/or picture being rediscovered. Can anyone enlighten on that subject or on the preservation history of this title?
-Harold