Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Show Boat Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 8, 2020

If you were to find yourself on Jeopardy! and, like it or not, were presented with the category of Musical Theater and then the answer, “Partner of Rodgers”, even those (and maybe especially those) without one whit of interest in musicals might breathe a sigh of relief, and be able to easily respond, “Who is Hammerstein?”, even if the correct question turned out to be “Who is Hart?” or even “Who is Sondheim?” or "Who is Charnin?" What, though, if the answer had actually been, “Partner of Hammerstein”? Are there many people who would easily know of any collaborators other than Rodgers for this venerable legend of American lyric writing? Of course memories can be short, and there was a time, and indeed a good, long time, when if a partner of Hammerstein’s was thought of, chances are it would have been Jerome Kern, the composer with whom Hammerstein created what is generally thought of as a major step toward a traditional integrated “book” musical, Show Boat. If Hammerstein’s pieces with Rodgers helped elevate the concept of a multidisciplinary theater experience which expertly combined story, song and dance into an Art Form, it’s arguable and maybe inarguable that Show Boat provided a more than firm foundation for that later edifice, despite its watery setting.

What's kind of bracing (even to this day) about Show Boat is not necessarily just its structural innovations, but indeed the content that the structure contains. The story here is typical of Edna Ferber's works, spanning two generations (at least), in a tale that wends from the late 19th century to the early 20th. The Cotton Blossom plies the Mississippi River, pulling into ports with its aggregation of performers who then do a bit of "marketing" to attract ticket buying customers to their venue. The Cotton Blossom is owned by Cap'n Andy Hawks (Charles Winninger) and his slightly harridan-esque wife, Parthy (Helen Westley). The Hawks' daughter Magnolia (Irene Dunne) has dreams of becoming a star in her family's business, but rather quickly love in the form of riverboat gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Allan Jones) shows up, detouring those plans. While marriage soon ensues, suffice it to say that over the course of the decades the story covers, Ravenal's winning ways aren't a sure thing, leading to a number of marriage based soap operatic elements that may remind some of a later Irene Dunne effort, Penny Serenade.

Now, that part of the content is hardly innovative or especially provocative, even if Hammerstein's book manages to deliver unexpectedly nuanced characterizations, at least within the context of a musical play trying desperately to break free from the shackles of operetta. But in two interwoven subplots, Hammerstein reveals a kind of audacity (admittedly culled from Edna Ferber's source novel) that a so-called "musical comedy" had probably never offered before. The first of these involves two married black workers on the Cotton Blossom, Joe (Paul Robeson) and Queenie (Hattie McDaniel), while the second involves the Cotton Blossom's star attraction, Julie La Verne (Helen Morgan). Without revealing any outright spoilers (are there still people who don't know some of the "secrets" of Show Boat?), Hammerstein rather deftly approaches matters of race and intolerance in much the same way he would do later in South Pacific.

As surprisingly prescient as Show Boat is in some matters, it also can't quite escape the inherent racism of its production era and even some elements from Ferber's original conception, or at least its many dramatizations. This particular aspect, which is delved into rather deeply in a really fascinating supplement included on this disc, will probably be the one major stumbling block of both the musical in general and this film in particular for some modern day eyes and ears.

Show Boat Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Show Boat is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Criterion's insert booklet has the following information on the transfer:

Show Boat is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from a 35 mm safety fine-grain made from the original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices and warps were manually removed using MTI Film's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain, and noise management.

The original monoaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35 mm fine-grain using Avid's Pro Tools and iZotope RX.

While still occasionally showing signs of both the quality of its source element as well as the ravages of time, this is a stellar looking presentation all around. There are noticeable fluctuations in contrast, clarity and grain structure, but generally speaking, detail levels are quite commendable, blacks are suitably deep and gray scale nicely modulated, and the presentation has nice fluidity and a really enjoyably organic appearance. Occasional brightness issues afflict a few process shots, and there are still very minimal scratches and the like that have managed to evade the restoration gauntlet, but I can't imagine anyone who has seen previous home video releases of this title not being pleased with the result.

Show Boat Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Show Boat features an LPCM Mono track that can't quite escape the technologies of its era's recordings, with a sometimes pretty shallow, even tinny, sound. There are just hints of distortion at higher amplitudes and especially in upper ranges, but the overall sound of this track is quite warm and inviting, especially when lower voices are featured, as in the stirring Robeson rendition of "Ol' Man River". Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Show Boat Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Miles Kreuger is the excellent archival analysis from 1989.


• Remembering James Whale (1080p; 20:11) is a newly done piece featuring Whale biographer James Curtis.


• Recognizing Race in Show Boat (1080p; 26:36) is another newly done featurette, with some really well done analysis with professor and author Shana L. Redmond.


• Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1080p; 29:27) is an Academy Award winning short documentary from 1979.


• Show Boat (1929) offers two separate sections, with four existing performances from a prologue done after talkies changed the production course of the 1929 version, and then some of the silent excerpts, the latter featuring commentary from Miles Kreuger.

  Prologue (1080p; 16:12) features Dolby Digital Mono audio.

  
  

  Silent Segments (1080p; 20:11)

• Radio Plays feature two different broadcast iterations of the story. Both of these play to stills from the film.

  The Campbell Playhouse (1080p; 58:39) stems from March 31, 1939, and features producer and narrator Orson Welles, along with Helen Morgan as Julie and original novel author Edna Ferber as Parthenia.

  
  

  The Radio Hall of Fame (1080p; 59:07) aired on December 31, 1944 and features Allan Jones as Ravenal and Charles Winninger as Cap'n Andy and the narrator.

Also, a very nicely appointed insert booklet is included.

Show Boat Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When James Whale's name is mentioned, it almost automatically makes people think of The Old Dark House, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and/or The Invisible Man (with perhaps Gods and Monsters thrown in there somewhere), but Show Boat proves what a capable director of musicals Whale was. This is expertly staged for the most part, even if some of the characterizations of the black characters may chafe at modern sensibilities. Criterion has once again provided a release with generally solid technical merits and some hugely appealing supplements. Highly recommended.