1h 19min | Musical | 23 July 1953 | Color
Director: Richard Quine
Stars: Dick Haymes, Audrey Totter, Billy Daniels, Cecil Kellaway.
Lee Scott ... choreographer
Watched online, blurrrrrry, but better than another copy by the same user, which also has weak sound.
See the guy down in the corner of the poster? That's Billy Daniels, and I believe he's African American. He's the manservant to CK, has a gorgeous voice and sings in his spare time, primarily in church (all black) and then on the showboat. Other black performers are included in the church scenes, but more important, in the showboat scenes which are racially integrated. I think there is so much footage on black performers here that excising them would make this a much shorter film.
10 songs in the Soundtracks, only 1 with a performer.
DH sings plenty, and even dances a bit. There was a blonde dancing, but it was too blurry to decide if it was AT or not. Really nice to see AT in a non-Noir role; she plays a college teacher of English who falls for DH, and is the granddaughter of CK who had a feud with DH's grandfather.
There was 1 dance number (ensemble) that impressed me a for a few moments.
The racial integration made me super happy. But the poor print prevents me from giving this a +.
Columbia, dir. Quine; 6
