According to the marvellous book on SHOWBOAT there are a lot of scenes that never mad it into the final copy especially the scenes with Sunny Odea as the daughter her complete stage debut was elliminated. there are pictures available the scenes were in the original cut but not the final version come on Turner where are they how about a reprint of it all on DVD
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I this going to come out on DVD??? I'd buy it in a second.
shareI would too! I'd love to know if it is planned for a DVD release!
shareDVD of this essential movie is long overdue. it appears that the Master copies are no longer in existence. But with all the technology available surely a good copy can be made available in the modern format?
Anyone any ideas on how / who to petition?
Thenardier
A long quote from the Feb 1971 issue of Leonard Maltin's Film Fan Monthly concerning the aggregation of a number of Dunne's films for a retrospective:
"MGM...... checked its vault records and discovered that it had acquired
the camera negative to the 1936 ( Showboat ) production when it purchased the rights to the
property from Universal. It was among the twenty features MGM owns that it has
yet to preserve on safety film, and the nitrate negative was in a badly
decomposed state. Both museums agreed to help support the cost of making a new
print and MGM's lab went to work. The negative was so badly shrunken that every
frame had to be optically enlarged to make the new fine grain print. From that
a dupe negative was struck and the soundtrack was re-recorded. It was a most
painstaking operation and when the lab checked the print the day before the
screening, it was discovered that the first four reels were out of sync in
parts.
They were hurriedly printed up again, this time in sync, but with a very pale,
flat image."
The two museums that helped finance that restoration were the Los Angeles
County Museum Of Art and the M.H. DeYoung Memorial Museum of San Francisco. The
FFM issue mentioned is still available from Maltin's website.
-Turner Classic Movies, that is, and as shown on that channel, it's in great shape. It's been added to the National Film Registry, for God's sake! An excellent-looking print has also been available on VHS since 1990, as well, so what's the point of this 1971 article? To give the impression that the 1936 film version can't be issued on DVD?
That is pure BS, especially so since I first saw the 1936 film in a movie theatre palace (the Fox, to be exact) during a summer film festival. That was in 1981. Two years later, in 1983, it came to cable television for the first time, where I saw it again. And since it's been on video since 1990, I have to assume that there is no shortage of good prints.
Why do they have to make a copy specifically from the master print? Have they any idea of how few original master prints of any old movie are in existence? That has never stopped them before!
And I hope the people at Turner read this and issue the 1936 "Show Boat" on DVD soon.
Or are they trying to weasel their way out of it so that people will only be able to get the 1951 version?
Hi critic, I'll just quote your nonsense here in case IMDB wants to issue it on DVD sometime in the future* (*= alien concept warning). Someone'll thank me in 1971.
Turner Classic Movies, that is, and as shown on that channel, it's in great shape. It's been added to the National Film Registry, for God's sake! An excellent-looking print has also been available on VHS since 1990, as well, so what's the point of this 1971 article? To give the impression that the 1936 film version can't be issued on DVD?share
That is pure BS, especially so since I first saw the 1936 film in a movie theatre palace (the Fox, to be exact) during a summer film festival. That was in 1981. Two years later, in 1983, it came to cable television for the first time, where I saw it again. And since it's been on video since 1990, I have to assume that there is no shortage of good prints.
Why do they have to make a copy specifically from the master print? Have they any idea of how few original master prints of any old movie are in existence? That has never stopped them before!
And I hope the people at Turner read this and issue the 1936 "Show Boat" on DVD soon.
Or are they trying to weasel their way out of it so that people will only be able to get the 1951 version?
You have quoted my so-called "nonsense" without even explaining why you think it is nonsense. You could at least have had the courtesy to do that.
I am only stating what I know. The prints that I saw of the 1936 "Show Boat" in 1981 and 1983 weren't the greatest, but the print that was issued on VHS in 1990 was of excellent quality, as is the print that Turner Classic Movies runs on television from time to time. I simply stated that, since the print shown on TCM seems to be in fine condition, why can't an excellent-looking DVD be made of this movie?
Critic, your post made no sense, especially chronologically. My post commented, and referenced the FFM issue, on the point of the very existence of the original film.
Your surmise that the point of a 30+ year old FFM article had something to do with DVDs....does that make sense?
When you put words in my mouth then call BS you're leaving me very little room to temper my response.
I have a cheapo dvd of Showboat so maybe we have a case of too much inferior product in circulation to make a good quality DVD economically feasible.
A respectable digital transfer was made for two laser disc editions (Criterion and MGM)in the past. I don't know if they were made from a restored print or not, but it's quite nice. So it's there. I can only assume what's holding up a DVD release is the legalities. Brazil has a DVD release, but I don't know if it's legit or a commercial bootleg. I haven't seen it. It pops up on ebay on occasion.
Someone needs to petition Warner Bros to release a DVD version of MGM's COMPLETE SHOW BOAT laser disc set, with the 1929, 1936 and 1951 versions, and the SHOW BOAT segment from TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY. Or for Criterion to do likewise with their SHOW BOAT LD release. Both were terrific. Criterion actually issued two versions, one with just the film and another with extras. The deluxe Criterion set included commentary, features on the deleted scenes, information and ephemera on the original stage play, the two Tess Gardella numbers from the 1929 film prologue, information on the 1929 film, and the SHOW BOAT segment from TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY as well. Look for these on ebay as well if you have a laser disc player. Well worth it.
I believe that "Show Boat" release rights belong to the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. Oscar Hammerstein II was the lyricist of the show. If anyone wants to contact anyone to inquire as to the release rights of the 1936 film, the R&H Organization would probably be the place to send e-mails or letters. I would love to have a DVD copy of the film myself.
shareThe book, "Show Boat: The Story of a Classic American Musical" by Miles Kreuger (1977: Oxford University Press) is a standard reference book on the show. As far as I know it was never revised, so information about the Livent show (mid-1990's) is not included.
shareTo the OP: Do you make it a habit not to use any punctuation?
And unfortunately, I have not heard anything about this version coming out on an official American DVD, just a bootleg Brazilian one.
Somebody has posted the 1936 version on Youtube in 16 sections... Seems more than adequate to me... As a piece of theatre history, this and the 1927 version and the 1951 version belong in a boxed set... I know I for one would buy it...
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