Showboat
Screening on Film
Directed by James Whale.
With Irene Dunne, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan.
US, 1936, 35mm, color, 113 min.
With Irene Dunne, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan.
US, 1936, 35mm, color, 113 min.
Kern-Hammerstein’s much-loved musical is given memorable treatment in the last major production completed under the Laemmle regime at Universal Studios. James Whale (better known for his horror classic Frankenstein) contributed to Hollywood’s musical boom with the second of three screen adaptations of this sentimental favorite. Paul Robeson and Helen Morgan reprise their Broadway roles in the melodramatic tale of river boat life and miscegenation in the deep South.