Show Boat is the name of three musical films based on the stage musical of the same name by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (script and lyrics) and the novel by Edna Ferber. The song Bill featured lyrics by P.G. Wodehouse, and the original show featured two non-Kern songs, Goodbye, My Lady Love and After the Ball. For more about the musical and the plot see: Show Boat.

Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book (based on a novel by Edna Ferber) and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. One notable exception is the song "Bill", which was originally written for Kern in 1918 by P. G. Wodehouse but reworked by Hammerstein for Show Boat. Two other songs not by Kern and Hammerstein — "Goodbye, My Lady Love" by Joseph Howard and "After the Ball" by Charles K. Harris — are always interpolated into American stage productions of the show.

Show Boat is based on a best-selling 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. Ferber spent several weeks on the James Adams Floating Palace Theater in Bath, North Carolina, gathering information for the novel about the disappearing American phenomenon: the showboat. In a few short weeks, she gained what she called a "treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true." The setting for the musical version was mostly the Mississippi River, much traveled by real show boats in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Show Boat is generally considered to be the first true American "musical play" — a dramatic form with popular music, separate from operettas, light musical comedies of the 1890s and early 20th century (e.g., Florodora), and the "Follies"-type musical revues that preceded it. In many ways, it took the plot-and-character-centered "Princess Musicals" that Kern had developed with Bolton and Wodehouse in the previous decade and broadened their scope.

George S. Kaufman and George Gershwin's Strike Up the Band, which previewed earlier that year, clearly made similar leaps, although their subject matter was satirical and farcical. Unlike Strike Up the Band and the "Princess Theatre" musicals, though, Show Boat was sentimental and somewhat tragic; it also displayed the style of a musical epic, contrasted with an intimate show with two sets and only a few characters.

The "Cotton Blossom", owned by the Hawk family, is the show boat where everyone comes for great musical entertainment down south. Julie Laverne and her husband are the stars of the show. After, a snitch on board calls the local police that Julie (who's half- African-American) is married to a whiteman, they are forced to leave the show boat. The reason being, that down south interracial marriages are forbidden. Magnolia Hawk, Captain Andy Hawks daughter, becomes the new show boat attraction and her leading man is Gaylord Ravenal, a gambler. The two instantly fall in love, and marry, without Parthy Hawks approval. Magnolia and Gaylord leave the, "Cotton Blossom", for a whirl wind honeymoon and being to live in a Pl: fantasy world. Magnolia soon faces reality quickly, that gambling means more to Gaylord than anything else. Magnolia confront Gaylord and after he gambles away their fortune he leaves her - not knowing she is pregnant. Magnolia is left penniless and pregnant, and is left to fend for herself, and make a new start. Written by Kelly

In the end of the Nineteenth Century, the show boat "Cotton Blossom" owned by Captain Andy Hawks flies along the rivers in the South of North America with the lead stars Julie LaVerne and her husband Stephen Baker and musical entertainment. When Julie and Stephen are accused of miscegenation, they have to leave the boat, and Captain Hawk's daughter Magnolia and the gambler Gaylord Ravenal take their places. They fall in love for each other, get married and move to Chicago, living in a fancy and expensive hotel. However, the jinx of Gaylord consumes all their money, and later Gaylord completely broken leaves Magnolia without knowing she is pregnant. She struggles to survive, returns to her father's boat and business and raises her daughter with her parents. Years later, Julie accidentally meets Gaylord and tells him about his daughter. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

When Julie la Verne and her husband Steve Baker are forced to leave the showboat Cotton Blossom (their marriage is illegal because of Julie's mixed blood),their places are taken by Magnolia Hawks, the Captain's daughter, and Gaylord Ravenal, a gambler. Magnolia and Ravenal fall in love, marry, leave the boat and move to Chicago, where they live off Ravenal's earnings from gambling. After they go broke Gay feels guilty and leaves Magnolia, not knowing she is pregnant. Written by Albert Sanchez Moreno

The film begins with Magnolia, daughter of Captain Andy Hawks and his domineering wife Parthy, enjoying her childhood aboard her father's show boat. Parthy, irritated over the supposed influence of leading lady Julie (Magnolia's idol and best friend) fires her, despite her husband's objections. Many years later, Magnolia is a young woman and becomes a leading lady. Her leading man is Gaylord Ravenal, a riverboat gambler with whom she falls in love and elopes. But the sudden and unexpected death of Captain Andy forces the couple to leave the boat and move to Chicago rather than endure the disapproving Parthy, and Ravenal's gambling luck soon runs out. Then, Parthy announces she's coming to visit. Written by Albert Sanchez Moreno

Adaptation of the Broadway musical. Magnolia Hawks is the lovely but protected, and thus very naive, daughter of Cap'n Andy Hawks, the genial proprietor of a show boat that cruises the Missisippi, and his nagging wife, Parthy. She is best friends with the show boat's star, Julie LaVerne, but Julie and her husband Steve are forced to leave when it is revealed that Julie has "Negro" blood in her, thereby breaking the state law by being married to the white Steve. Magnolia replaces Julie as the show boat's female star, and the show's new male star is the suave gambler Gaylord Ravenal. "Nola" and Gaylord fall in love and marry against Parthy's wishes. They and their young daughter lead the high life when Gaylord is lucky in gambling, but live like dirt when he's unlucky. During one such unlucky streak, a broken Gaylord leaves Nola, and she is forced to start over by returning to the stage. Like Old Man River, as the famous song from this show goes, she just keeps rollin' along. Written by Tommy Peter

Magnolia Hawks lives on her father Captain Andy's floating show boat, the Cotton Blossom. She meets gambler Gaylord Ravenal in a river town and falls for him. That afternoon,during the rehearsal for the evening's show, star actress Julie and her husband and co-star Steve are forced to leave the company and Gaylord is hired to take Steve's place, while Magnolia takes over Julie's. They fall in love and marry. Leaving the showboat, 'Nola and Gay and their little daughter, Kim, move to Chicago, where their fortunes wax and wane depending on Gay's luck. He finally leaves his wife and child and she is forced to return to the stage, where she becomes a star. Written by Ron Kerrigan