Show Boat (1929 Film)

Show Boat (1929 Film)

Show Boat is a 1929 American romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Edna Ferber, not, as has been often claimed, on the Kern-Hammerstein stage musical, although the film does have songs. This version was released by Universal in two editions, one a silent film for movie theatres still not equipped for sound, and one a part-talkie with a sound prologue. The storyline follows the novel rather closely, with the significant exception of the racial angle present in the novel and in virtually all other adaptations of it, including the celebrated 1927 Broadway musical version and the film versions of the musical, made, respectively, in 1936 and 1951. (Some live radio adaptations of the musical would also omit or heavily alter the racial angle.)

The 1929 film was long believed to be lost, but most of it has been found and released on laserdisc and shown on Turner Classic Movies. A number of sections of the soundtrack were found in the mid-1990s on Vitaphone records, although the film was made with a Movietone soundtrack. Two more records were discovered in 2005, and it was said these elements would be used for a 2007 DVD, but more than five years after that announcement, it has yet to appear.