Topic starter
21/04/2008 7:21 pm
Since a couple of weeks there are movie posters all over town for the movie "Love in the time of cholera" based upon the book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The story is located in Columbia where the movie was also shot (and in Great Britain). A sternwheel steamboat is featured in this movie and I´m wondering what boat this is
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1262195200/tt0484740
Any information about this boat?
Carmen
21/04/2008 9:48 pm
Strike One
My first guess would have been some back lot H'wood tampering with the CASINO ROCK ISLAND, arguably one of the most gracious casino boats built early-on in the rabid race for never-enough gamlin' boats. Jumer's Jewel is currently listed for sale and would make a beauty of a boat for someone who could afford to do her proud. But after comparing photographs of the two, the CRI seems unlikely to be Carmen's handsome mystery boat.
22/04/2008 3:30 am
Carmen, I don't know what boat that is, but the movie industry has a very bad record as far as making a steamboat look authentic. This one is no exception. The best movie steamboat I have ever seen was in the 1953 James stewart film "Bend of the River". They used an old Columbia river towboat, the "Henderson" completely un-altered except they re-named her "River Queen" (how original!) I still get shivers whenever I see the scenes of her in that film.
Topic starter
22/04/2008 6:12 am
What it´s makeing even more mysterious is that the movie was shot in Great Britain (where definitely no even similar boat exisits) and Colombia. And I never heard about a steamboat in Colombia. Sure it can be just a model and nicely shot it looks like a real boat. Just thinking but James Rees did sell a lot of steamboats to South America. May it be possible that one of these boats is still in existance (except for the one we know about on the Rio San Francisco)?
Carmen
22/04/2008 6:54 am
Hello
I think I found something, http://www.daylife.com/photo/000TgsEbw09X8 (page may take a second to load)
Boat in that picture does look very similar, and it says its the same boat. It clearly was fixed up a good bit more for the movie.
-Nick
22/04/2008 8:39 am
Was the Casino Rock Island built in the Spirit of Peoria? If it was, STAY AWAY! The design of that boat was botched by a hotel decorator. It was unstable owing to too much cabin for the hull and had severe restrictions on passenger allowance.
22/04/2008 11:00 am
Alan, the SPIRIT OF PEORIA still exists and runs at Peoria. She was built for hotel magnate James Jumer, who also had the CASINO ROCK ISLAND. I assume he had the same designer(s). The casino boat is a good bit longer than the SPIRIT, possibly wider as well.
22/04/2008 11:01 am
By George, I think Nick's got it! The press release says it is a steamboat. We all know how the press can botch those things up, but might it actually be? Interesting!
Topic starter
22/04/2008 12:06 pm
Wow, great job, Nick!
And I´d say they really did a great job on that boat too. The text is saying that they built the boat specially for the movie.
Carmen
22/04/2008 3:21 pm
Cancel this message. It is not for public consumption.
23/04/2008 1:27 pm
RE: STEAMBOAT IN MOVIE:
Steamboating colleagues:
Thanks for drawing attention to the steamboat featured in the movie 'Love in the time of cholera.' Though filmed in Colombia, the original story was based in Venezuela. Reviewers--with mixed reviews--are calling the film an 'Anglo-Hollywood' production with wavering forced English accents. Cartagena may be the major port city indicated but I'd opine the scenes were shot on the Magdalena River--possibly. Sources here indicate the steamboat featured was the "restoration of a vintage steamboat." I've sleuted like crazy but find no link to the particulars on the boat. The boat, as pictured on this thread, has what appears to be a freshly painted hull.
I discovered a battered news clipping dated Nov. 27, 1921 with the report of an unnamed steamboat built at Pt. Pleasant, W. Va. for South America. No river there is mentioned. The knocked down boat components were loaded on 16 rail cars for transit to New York for loading for delivery by sea. This is intriguing and I wonder who out there has any additional information on this boat so constructed for South America? Denny Bros. in Scotland, Rees Co. in Pittsburgh and the Howards of Jeffersonville all had experience in construction of boats for foreign destinations. Howards were noted for their knock down boats for Alaska. Such boat projects were common back then with full steamships built for delivery up to the shores vast Lake Titicaca, Peru on the heights of the Andean altiplano. I snapped a photo of one of those ships several years ago while there. Well, what do I know?
Cheers,
R. Dale Flick