Show Boat (1936)

This film of "Show Boat" is more faithful to the original stage musical than any of the other films of it, except for the 1989 videotaped production presented on PBS.As the film begins, the Cotton Palace, a show boat on the Mississippi River, pulls into port. On board are the owner Cap'n Andy Hawks, his nagging, disapproving wife Parthy, and their eighteen-year old daughter Magnolia, along with their troupe of actors, singers, and dancers. Pete, the rough, coarse engineer of the towboat Mollie Able, which pushes the Cotton Palace, notices Queenie, the show boat's African-American cook, wearing a brooch that he had sent to the Cotton Palace's leading lady, Julie la Verne, in the hopes of seducing her away from her husband, Steve Baker, leading man of the company. Julie wants nothing to do with Pete and has given Queenie the brooch. Pete threatens Julie in front of her husband. A fistfight breaks out between Steve and Pete on the levee, just as Cap'n Andy is introducing his actors to the assembled crowd. Andy quickly pretends that Steve and Pete were merely acting out a scene from one of the plays performed by the company. Windy McLain, the pilot of the Mollie Able, notices that Pete has stolen Julie's photo out of its frame on the levee, where photos of the acting troupe are poste