Open HD | Show Boat | Warner Archive

Show Boat (1951) #WarnerArchive #WarnerBros #ShowBoat

From novel (by Edna Ferber) to Broadway smash (by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II) to three film versions (1929, 1936, 1951) to stage revivals. Like Ol' Man River, Show Boat just keeps rollin' along. Produced by Arthur Freed and directed by George Sidney, this 1951 version of the saga of riverboat lives and loves has glorious stars (Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel, Marge and Gower Champion) in Technicolor® radiance, a made-from-scratch 170-foot paddle wheeler, timeless songs and an equally timeless outcry against racial bigotry. "This was music that would outlast Kern's day and mine," Ferber said in recalling her first reaction to hearing "Ol' Man River." She was right as rain.

Directed By George Sidney
Starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel

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[JustineWittich]

People my age got to see this full screen in a movie theater first time around. Having already read the book, I was impressed that the messages were all there in it. And the casting was simply superb.

[artsmith]

This looks absolutely stunning!! Congratulations to George Feltenstein and the whole Warner Bros. motion picture imaging team on another brilliant restoration of one of the most iconic American masterpieces!!!

[BLTKellys]

I love the joy on the field workers faces when they are told the showboat is coming. It’s such a lovely sequence.

[pa]

OMG, more than classic. The song OLD MAN RIVER made this movie.

[FllixRouge]

Give all the Credit to the great choreographer Bob Alton and the endless great costume and set designers and the many producers involved on the MGM lot who made this gem possible 😅

[robertszvetics]

I just brought the bluray and its looks beauiful not like the old dvd which looked like crap its about time warner released a bluray of this great film. and the soundtrack is in 2 channel stereo which the dvd was not and a nice audio commentary by director George Sidney and song outtakes by the beauitful Ava Gardner.

[kennethwayne]

Looks gorgeous! I was lucky enough to see this on a theater screen twice (last time in early '90's), but both times the print was faded and washed-out. Isn't Blu-ray a beautiful thing?

[billbright]

“ in a phantom kiss, , , or two or three “

Might as well make believe I love you, for to tell the truth, I do.

Cotton Blossom!

[pablocosta]

What a superb film it would have been, if it retained more stuff from the Broadway original concept.

[alancaron]

They should have given the little girl who played Kim an Academy award.

[henrikechers]

Love it. Pure make believe, and a fairy tale beginning

[jeffkinzie]

These stereo elements had better be on the bluray, it is a selling point for me.

[chapsnaps]

It is a stunning restoration but the story is really depressing. It doesn't have the emotional uplift of "Singin' in the Rain."

[marialuisadellagramatica]

qualcuno lo carica per intero in italiano?? graziee

[tianabrown]

The GOOD NEWS: The cinematography and the music are excellent here, and I've always loved this opening.

The BAD NEWS: more bogus stereotypes about slaves/Blacks being happy on the plantation. I don't know why they're excited about the showboat coming, it wasn't as if they could go see the show or anything. In real life if they just dropped the cotton and ran out of the fields like that they'd be beaten half to death.

[__-pljg]

I just spit laughed all over my table because of how rediculous the opening scene was😄🤣😂. For a second I thought the slaves were going to break into a dance routine to show how happy they were.

[friendomations.]

Cotton blossom
Cotton blossom
Captain Andy's floating show
Cotton blossom
captain andy