Capital Celluloid 2019 - Day 355: Fri Dec 20

Show Boat (Whale, 1936): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.15pm


This 35mm screening (also being presented on December 21st) is part of the Musicals season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
James Whale's brilliant and surprisingly delicate 1936 rendition of the Kern and Hammerstein musical, which was based on an Edna Ferber novel, is infinitely superior to the dull 1951 MGM Technicolor remake and, interestingly enough, less racist. The rendition of “Old Man River” by Paul Robeson, magnificent throughout, is a high point, occasioning a montage sequence that shows Whale at his most expressionistic and inventive.

Jonathan Rosenbaum



Here (and above) is an extract.

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