Looks like they made this film after seeing "Showboat", perhaps while in a drunken haze. I think there was a silent version prior to the classic 1936 one. Certainly the names of the characters Uncle (Captain) Andy, Julie (or Ellie Mae), and Queenie, all of them characters in "Showboat", are more than coincidental. Could it be that Queenie Smith got the role of Ellie-Mae in the 1936 film partly on the strength of her work here? Not to mention the boat itself. Aside from that it's a delightful mini-musical, though some of the production numbers are anything but "mini" in scale. The blond zombies in the Sophisticated Ladies number are particularly delightful.
Review of Masks and Memories
