Show Boat - Howard Keel [DVD] [1951]

This version suffers from very poor sound quality which exaggerates the now annoying vibrato the female singers considered to be fashionable at the time the film was made. The DVD comes over as more harsh sounding than my old VHS tape.That said, the second half of the film is very moving and a reflection of the potential quality and strength of this musical when well performed. PBS in the USA televised a performance by the New Jersey State Opera some years ago, which was the best performance I have seen. Sadly I have never seen this version available in video format. If it languishes in a vault somewhere, it should be rescued and put on sale.I find the complete CD version recorded some years back, infamous for including the n word from the original lyrics, too stuffy and lacking emotion. It is of academic interest only and lacks the "soul" inherent in the story on which the musical and movie was based.Thus sadly this DVD seems to be all that is available in English of what remains as a record of a potentially great musical drama. Only the second half of the film brings this off successfully. I hope somebody produces a restored version of the film with the sound track cleaned up.

The quality of this transfer is truly astounding, bright vibrant colours and even a simulated stereo soundtrack - along with the original mono. Don't listen to the commentary it is just a list of people he met in Hollywood and no details about the film, you know "That scene took us ages to light" etc. However worth every penny if you like the music. The recently issued Blu Ray of the 1930s version is also worth buying. By the way the download quality, despite saying HD is not a patch on the disk. This shows that "buying" a film by download will never replace a circle of plastic!

Showboat is a spectacular early 1950's MGM musical. This long overdue restoration is incredible, excellent picture quality and audio. The film is 70 years old, but there's not a scratch, flicker or dust mark to be seen. Superb work by the restorers! Like all musicals of this era it won't appeal to everyone. The underlying storyline, that of the effects of racial injustice is very unusual for the era and handled differently to how it would be today.

I bought this to replace a much-loved, very poor quality (due to repeated playings) VHS version for my 93-year old father. WOW!!! What an amazing difference! Beautiful clear picture (taking into account it was originally filmed in 1951), excellent sound and extremely fast delivery (ordered Monday afternoon, had it in my hand by 9.30am the next morning).This is such a great film, outstanding singing, memorable songs and lyrics, and superb dancing. The storyline is pretty good too, for a musical.I would just make sure you are buying a Region 2 (or 4) version and not one of the many (but cheaper) Region 1 (US) versions if your DVD player is not compatible.

I purchased this DVD (Region 2) a week ago and I love this movie, one of Hollywood's best from the golden era of first class musicals. It has a stellar cast, cult tunes like "Old Man River", to mention just one. It even has a song, "Bill" whose lyrics were written by the brilliant author PG Wodehouse! The film also has a deep, meaningful story, which is quite rare with musicals in general. It's a tale that deals with racism and poverty, but also self sacrifice (when Ava Gardner's Character deliberately leaves the theatre so that her friend can have her job). Even though the story and acting are top notch, the film never forgets that it is first and foremost a wonderful, colourful, entertaining musical, with its fair share of fancy costumes and lavish sets (the boat itself is a gem). However, as good as the film may be, I feel that Warner Brothers went a little cheap with the restoration work on this one. There are occasional blemishes (only on the image, the sound is fine) that should have been removed or corrected on the transfer. This is the reason why I haven't given this product the 5 star rating the film deserves.

Ordered my copy on 26th March on Amazon arrived from the US yesterday 1st April......the disc looked superb upscaled to 4K on both my Panasonic 4K TV and on my Optima 4K UHD Projector in the evening....a must buy if you are a fan of the film looks as good as a 4K UHD disc.

I enjoyed the many great songs in this Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein musical and wallowed in the nostalgia of watching Ava Gardner, Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel and William Warfield. The Missisippi paddle-wheeler "Cotton Blossom" was a wonderful sight (and apparently custom built for the film). However, the audio quality of the soundtrack was mediocre. I thought initially that my earphones had a problem, but I tried others without improvement. (I guess that my expectations are influenced to an extent by the excellent sound quality of today's films, but I have a couple of Glenn Miller movies from the early 1940s which have better quality sound than this Show Boat.)I was surprised to find that my copy of the dvd was NTSC region 4. This doesn't cause me a problem, but most folks here in the UK have Region 2 players, so you may wish to check before ordering.

Downloaded this video, absolute rubbish very jerky playback stopping for about 3 secs then on for 3 secs, could not view the video due to excessive pixel breakdown, sound erratic. Fair do’s to Vicky from Amazon giving us a quick refund, no doubt she watched the video .