Is it me, or am I the only one who thinks Ava Gardner is the best thing in the movie?
No, you are not the only one. She is so pretty and classy looking! Great classic Hollywood looks! Actress's now adays are not as classic looking as they were back then. They were real movie stars back in the day! I watch movies like "Show Boat" all the time on TCM and Fox Movie Channel. They are the only two stations who still show such classic films.
shareNo, although I adored every minute of the movie and am a huge Howard Keel fan, Ava WAS the best part of the movie. She had so much emotion just without saying a word. I have seen this movie probably twenty times over the last 30 years, and for me, the best part is at the very end when she is hiding in the shadows on the dock...that look of love in her face as she blows them a kiss good-bye....you knew she was going to end up on the wrong side of the tracks even more than she was, and dead at an early age....but she was at peace. Very haunting and unforgettable.....
shareI agree with you all.....I liked Ave the best in the film. I liked when she sang that little song on the boat and danced around until old Agnes Moorehead walked up and Ave stopped.....Ave looked the best in that green dress.....
shareIf you read the Ferber novel, you can almost picture Ava Gardner in the role. There's a wonderful moment in the novel where Parthy brusquely asks Julie what time it is, and Julie, floating down the river on a summer afternoon, replies, "What does it matter?" It's that happy nonchalance that Gardner captures in her scenes with Magnolia.
shareI disagree, not surprised though to see this a topic of discussion here. I thought she was one of the worst things about the film actually. Where she was supposed to be an emotional rock, firm and resolute, she comes across in her performance as overemotional. She doesn't look remotely black. And she can't sing, it's obvious that she's being dubbed, which is always less than ideal in a musical. There are a lot of better people for this role. I would hate to think that people would think of Ava Gardner in this role before they think of Helen Morgan.
Anyway, just to end on a positive note, the best thing about the movie in my opinion was Marge and Gower Champion's dance to "Life Upon the Wicked Stage".
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'
If she looked black, she couldn't have passed for white!!
I just finished reading a book about her called "Ava Gardner Love is Nothing". amd I had to laugh at her when she was playing Julie in those drunk scenes, because Ava definitely liked to go out and carouse and have fun. It made me wonder if she was like that in real life.
I agree. I wonder that now that we know Ava's vocals are so much better than Annette Warren's, that they aren't re-inserted into the finished film.
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Who could not be affected by the final scene - Julie tearfully watching the steamboat leave the dock ? Ava was wonderful.
The scene on the dock was the one they showed at the Academy Awards when she was featured in the memorial section, beautiful lady
share...............Ava Gardner was the best thing about this movie. It's too bad her own voice wasn't on the sound track.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.