Showboat 1951 Director George Sidney Kathryn Grayson, Avav Gardner and Howard Steel.
Music: Make Believe, Old Man River,Why do I Love You? (Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein)
107 minutes
The "Cotton Blossom", owned by the Hawk family, is the show boat where everyone comes for great musical entertainment down south. Julie Laverne and her husband are the stars of the show. After, a snitch on board calls the local police that Julie (who's half- African-American) is married to a whiteman, they are forced to leave the show boat. The reason being, that down south interracial marriages are forbidden. Magnolia Hawk, Captain Andy Hawks daughter, becomes the new show boat attraction and her leading man is Gaylord Ravenal, a gambler. The two instantly fall in love, and marry, without Parthy Hawks approval. Magnolia and Gaylord leave the, "Cotton Blossom", for a whirl wind honeymoon and being to live in a Pl: fantasy world. Magnolia soon faces reality quickly, that gambling means more to Gaylord than anything else. Magnolia confront Gaylord and after he gambles away their fortune he leaves her - not knowing she is pregnant. Magnolia is left penniless and pregnant, and is left to fend for herself, and make a new start.
Trivia
The showboat built for the film (known as the Cotton Blossom) became an amusement park attraction in 1973, after MGM sold many of its props at an auction. Unfortunately, in 1995, it was dismantled and torn apart. For this film, the Cotton Blossom was built on top of a flat-bedded barge so that it could be towed into position by underwater cables for the musical number which opens the film. Even though the Cotton Blossom was built to exact specifications and was fitted with a stern paddle-wheel, the thrust of the paddle wheel would have been too strong to maneuver the boat in the studio lake. Too little thrust would have moved the boat very slowly if it moved the boat at all. Hence, it was necessary to move the boat into position by underwater cables. This underwater towing technique also made it easier for the boat to move into its mooring position at exactly the right moment when the musical number came to an end.
The body of water which doubled as the "Mississippi River" throughout nearly all the river scenes was actually the lake used for the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies made at M-G-M. This lake was also known as "The Lagoon" at MGM Studios because of its size. Several boats were moored there at the time of the big auction of studio properties, including the scaled replica of the "Bounty." The Lagoon was located on MGM's vast Backlot #3 at Overland and Jefferson Boulevards in Culver City, about one mile south of the studio's main lot.
Even though the character of "Magnolia" is supposed to look up to "Julie" in an older-sister type of relationship, in reality, Kathryn Grayson and Ava Gardner were born in the same year.
On these dates we saw:
24th November Casablanca with Humph playing his usual laconic role and close ups of Ingrid 's lovely face.
27th October The Wicked Lady with Margaret Lockwood as the femme fatale.
29th Sept Some Like it Hot --we all laughed as if seeing it for first time. A great film
28th August The Maltese Falcon
28th July 2009 Glen Miller Story
30th June Seven Year Itch With Marilyn Monroe/Tom Ewell director Billie Wilder
26th May we saw: Hitchcocks early film, The Lady Vanishes starring Margaret Lockwood
28th April we saw 'The Thrill of it All starring Doris Day and James Garner
27th March we saw The Way to the Stars with J Mills, M Redgrave and Rosemond John
24th February we saw The Ladykillers starring Alec Guines, Peter Sellars, Gerbert Lom and Katy Johnson
29th January 2009 we saw Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in 'To Catch a Thief'
On December 30th 2008 we saw Top Hat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
On November 25th we saw 'Its a wonderful life' the Christmas tearjerker
On October 28th Roman Holiday starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck
On September 23rd Double indemnity with Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Mc Murray. Seduction and murder
On August 26th Trottie True a 'good' gaiety girl marries a Lord but he has a roving eye.
On July29th Due to technical hitch, we had coffee and chatted!
On June 24th We saw 'Margie' with Jeanne Crane. The one where she lost her bloomers at inconvenient times
On May 27th We saw 'Hitchcock's 'Stranger in a Train'
On April 29th We saw Mandy directed by Andrew Mac Endrick with Phyllis Calvert & Jack Hawkins
On March 25th We saw "I married a Witch" Directed by René Clair. With Fredric March, Veronica Lake,
On February 26th We saw "Hobsons Choice" to compare with the theatre performance we saw in MK
On January 22nd 2008we saw "Pajama Game" Doris Day and James Raitt.What a joy on a dreary January day
On November 25th 2007 we saw"Fallen Idol" directed by Carol Reed. Beautifully acted by Ralph Richardso/Michelle Morgan and the central character, Bobby Henrey
On October 23rd we saw "The Third Man" can never see too many times
On September 25th 42nd Street. One of Busby Berkeley's early major work with Ruby Keeler
On July 30th we saw: Millions like us with Patricia Roc, Anne Crawford, Gordon Jackson
An opening scene reminds us of British life before the war. The Crowson family (father Jim, mother Elsie, daughters Phyllis and Celia, son Tom) visit the same seaside boarding house where they spend every summer: then comes the WW2 and everything changes..
