Steamboat Round the Bend (1935)

Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
Dr. John Pearly is an affable turn-of-the-century con man who sells a patent medicine
that is mostly whiskey.
He resurrects a broken down steamboat with a makeshift crew and challenges
the respectable but arrogant Captain Eli to a winner-take-all river race.
Pearly hopes his nephew Duke will serve as pilot, but he stands accused
of murdering a 'swamp rat' who threatened the honor of swamp girl Fleety Belle.
After Duke is arrested, Pearly tries to raise money for a lawyer by displaying
a wax museum aboard ship. Ultimately he gambles it all in the river race to Baton Rouge,
where he hopes to find a witness whose treatment will free Duke.
Written by duke1029

Full Cast
Will Rogers ... Doctor John Pearly
Anne Shirley ... Fleety Belle
Irvin S. Cobb ... Captain Eli
Eugene Pallette ... Sheriff Rufe Jeffers
John McGuire ... Duke
Berton Churchill ... New Moses
Francis Ford ... Efe
Roger Imhof ... Breck's Pappy
Raymond Hatton ... Matt Abel
Hobart Bosworth ... Chaplain
Stepin Fetchit ... Jonah
C.E. Anderson ... Jailer (uncredited)
Sam Baker ... Undetermined Role (uncredited)
William 'Billy' Benedict ... Breck (uncredited)
Heinie Conklin ... Jailbird (uncredited)
D'Arcy Corrigan ... Hangman (uncredited)
Luke Cosgrave ... Labor Boss (uncredited)
Grace Goodall ... Sheriff's Wife (uncredited)
Ben Hall ... Fleety Belle's Brother (uncredited)
Dell Henderson ... Salesman (uncredited)
Robert Homans ... Race Official (uncredited)
Si Jenks ... Farmer at Demonstrations (uncredited)
John Lester Johnson ... Uncle Jeff (uncredited)
Ed Jones ... New Elijah (uncredited)
Fred Kohler Jr. ... Ben - Fleety Belle's Fiance (uncredited)
James A. Marcus ... Warden (uncredited)
Louis Mason ... Boat Race Organizer (uncredited)
Charles Middleton ... Fleety Belle's Father (uncredited)
Ferdinand Munier ... Governor (uncredited)
Robert Parrish ... Boy (uncredited)
Vester Pegg ... Mink - Pride of Paducah Pilot (uncredited)
Jack Pennick ... River Man with Pappy (uncredited)
Otto Richards ... Prisoner (uncredited)
Ernest Shields ... Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Wingate Smith ... Undetermined Role (uncredited)
John Tyke ... Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Lois Verner ... Addie May (uncredited)
John Wallace ... Undetermined Role (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Ben Lucien Burman (novel "Steamboat Round the Bend")
Dudley Nichols (screenplay) and
Lamar Trotti (screenplay)

Original Music
Samuel Kaylin (uncredited)

Cinematography
George Schneiderman

Trivia
Both Frank Mayo and Jim Thorpe are in studio records/casting call lists as actors in this movie, but neither of them were seen.

The film was released shortly after Will Rogers' death on 15 August 1935 from an airplane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska. Originally, the ending of the film had him waving goodbye to the character played by Irvin S. Cobb, but the ending was changed to avoid the audience thinking he was saying goodbye to them, which may have caused them to leave the theater in tears.

Rogers' boat, "Claremore Queen," was named after his home town of Claremore, Oklahoma.

Rogers bought the rights to the story for $10,000 in 1933. It was Fox's biggest grosser in 1935.

Cobb's boat, "Pride of Paducah," was named after his home town of Paducah, Kentucky.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA (studio)
Sacramento, California, USA
San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, California, USA

Watch John Ford talking about the Movie

[extendedmedia]

Steamboat Round the Bend is a 1935 comedy film,
starring Will Rogers, in his final film and Anne Shirley

User Review

Quote

12 August 2005 | by JoeytheBrit

Will Rogers' final film and his third with director John Ford, STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND is arguably the best of the trio, although JUDGE PRIEST must run it a close second. In this one, Rogers is the captain of a run-down steamboat whose nephew (John McGuire) is facing the noose-end of a rope after killing a man attempting to rape his 'swamp' girl sweetheart (Anne Shirley). Rogers gives his typical laid-back performance, and acts everyone off the screen in the process. He really was a unique and remarkable talent, way ahead of his time in terms of his naturalistic performances, and must have been a little unnerving to work with for actors trained in more classical methods. Certainly Shirley and McGuire never get a look in when they share the screen with Rogers. Only the rotund figure of character actor Eugene Palette and his unforgettable foghorn voice manage to compete.

The era portrayed (described in the introduction simply as the '90s, as if the producers hadn't considered the possibility that the film would still be being shown in the 21st century) is pure Americana, but without the cloying sentimentality evident in so much of Hollywood's contemporaneous output. It's still an idealised version of America, in which sleepy jailer Palette throws down his keys to on-the-run Duke (McGuire) so that he can lock himself up, but the idealisation is never dwelled upon or forced down the viewer's throat. Anne Shirley, just a year after her breakthrough role in Anne of Green Gables is admirably de-glamourised (if there is such a word) as swamp girl Fleety Belle, who enjoys a confrontational relationship with Rogers' Doctor John Pearly before they eventually thaw toward one another, and Stepin Fetchit plays his usual sleepy-eyed simpleton. His roles were racist stereotypes to be sure, but there is something strangely mesmerising about his performances.

Like the steamboat upon which much of the story takes place, the film moves along at a steady old pace, never creating much of a sense of urgency as Pearly and Belle roam the Mississippi searching for New Moses, the only man who can save Duke from the noose, simply because it isn't trying to. This film isn't concerned with creating a suspenseful storyline so much as providing a showcase for Rogers' low-key charisma to work its charm.

This movie isn't shown on TV that often, so be sure to catch it if you get the chance.

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