Carnival Boat (1932)

Better Late Then Never

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Probably the best thing about CARNIVAL BOAT is the location filming as director Albert Rogell actually took the crew up to logging country for the bulk of the shooting. Otherwise it's your basic action programmer with some good stunt work and some tedious comic relief from Edgar Kennedy and Harry Sweet. William Boyd, later Hopalong Cassidy, stars as the lumberjack torn between father and sweetheart (Ginger Rogers). This may be the low point of Ginger's film career. It was her third Hollywood film (after five in New York), all made for Albert Rogell at RKO/Pathe. She seemed stuck in a downward trend (Pathe really didn't make any good films so far as I know) so she asked out of her contract and Pathe was more than happy to grant her the favor. A couple of years of freelancing and she signed again with RKO, soon to become a star.

Directed by 'B' Movie stalwart Albert S. Rogell, CARNIVAL BOAT has a lot of action packed into it - a daring train escape, an explosion involving lumberjacks, several fist-fights, a burlesque stage show and a love-affair involving Buck Gannon (William Boyd) and Honey (Ginger Rogers).The action zips by, interspersed with comic routines from Baldy (Edgar Kennedy) and Stubby (Harry Sweet). The plot is nothing much to speak of - suffice to say it involves a love-affair, patriarchal jealousy and a final reconciliation. But then not much else is expected of a 'B' flick designed to provide an aperitif to the main feature.Of perhaps more interest, however, is the film's representation of gender. Set among a gang of lumberjacks, it suggests that the workers like to prove their masculinity through fighting and drinking; if they don't get the chance to indulge in such worldly pleasures, they get bored. Honey is basically there as an object of Buck's affection; a largely passive character, she spends quite some time as an onlooker while Buck engineers the predictable happy ending. Such stereotypes are characteristic of early Thirties Hollywood movies; but what sets CARNIVAL TRAIN apart is its emphasis on the fragility of masculinity; it really seems as if the lumberjacks have to prove themselves time and again that they are the strong silent types - even when there is no one around to admire them. This makes for an intriguing film, where the fight-sequences serve no real plot-purpose, but exist solely for the workers' self- esteem.

Up and coming star Ginger Rogers takes a distinct second place to the special effects in a story about the men in a logging camp and the women on a Carnival Boat they should avoid. Ginger's partnered with William Boyd who was not yet Hopalong Cassidy.Boyd is the son of the camp foreman Hobart Bosworth who is feeling the effects of his age. He'd like to see his son succeed him as foreman of the camp, but Fred Kohler has an impressive record for the job and he's not squeamish about what he has to do for that promotion.At the same time Ginger works a Carnival Boat which provides the men of the woods some amusement and like the saloons of the old west relieves them of their wages. Boyd likes Ginger, but Bosworth doesn't feel she's a suitable bride for his son.I think you can probably figure out where and how this is all going to end. The plot is trite, but the special effects that include a runaway logging train and a river log jam are really first rate for their time. It makes Carnival Boat something to see if one can.

The impressive logging operations, the exciting runaway-train and log-jam sequences overcome this movie's routine double plot. First, Bill Boyd is in love with showgirl Ginger Rogers, who performs on a carnival boat that stops at the logging camp. His father, Hobart Bosworth, doesn't think much of her and he fears also Boyd will leave logging, dashing his hopes for Boyd to become boss when he retires. Second, Fred Kohler is also vying for the job of boss and even resorts to tactics to make Boyd look bad. When this fails, he even considers murder when both try to break up a log jam at a dam with dynamite. The film is briskly paced and beautifully photographed. Edgar Kennedy and his logging partner, Harry Sweet, provide the little comedy relief there is, and there is a couple of realistic looking fight sequences.