Whistling in Dixie (1942)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Awesome Movie

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Red Skelton (Wally Benton), Ann Rutherford (Carol Lambert), George Bancroft (Stagg), Guy Kibbee (Judge Lee), Diana Lewis (Ellamae Downs), Peter Whitney (District Attorney Bailie), Rags Ragland (Chester Conway/Sylvester Conway), Celia Travers (Hattie Lee), Lucien Littlefield (Corporal Lucken), Louis Mason (Deputy Lem), Mark Daniels (Martin Gordon), Emmett Vogan (radio producer), Pierre Watkin (doctor), Hal Le Sueur (sound effects man), Hobart Cavanaugh ("Hanky" Panky), Norman Abbott (attendant), Joseph Crehan (deputy police commissioner), Charles Lung (Brunner), John Wald (radio announcer), Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas (boy who gives directions).Director: S. SYLVAN SIMON. Screenplay: Nat Perrin. Additional dialogue: Wilkie C. Mahoney. Uncredited screenplay contributors: Jonathan Latimer, Lawrence Hazard. Film editor: Frank Sullivan. Photography: Clyde De Vinna. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Gabriel Scognamillo. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis and Keogh Gleason. Costumes designed by Howard Shoup. Music: Lennie Hayton. Assistant director: Hayes Goetz. Stunts: Gil Perkins. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: George Haight. Copyright 2 September 1942 by Loew's, Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture. New York opening at Loew's Criterion: 30 December 1942. Australian release: 2 December 1943 (sic). 6,628 feet. 74 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Wally Benton, alias "The Fox" (a super-sleuth of the airwaves), doesn't want to get married in Georgia, but his bride-to- be insists on answering a call for help from a former sorority sister.NOTES: Second of the three Whistling movies. The others: Whistling in the Dark (1941) and Whistling in Brooklyn (1943). All were directed by S. Sylvan Simon, and all three starred Red Skelton and Ann Rutherford.COMMENT: Oh, what a funny film! True, it takes a while to start producing more than an occasional mild chuckle, but the screenplay cleverly builds up to an absolutely side-splitting series of suspensefully comic misadventures. The last half-hour is uproariously funny. In fact the sequence in which the doddering corporal attempts to open a locked door gets my vote as the Most Amusing Scene of All Time. Even Mr. Skelton (who tries hard — perhaps too hard — from go to whoa), finally manages to raise a really good laugh or two, although he is brilliantly upstaged by both Lucien Littlefield (whose Civil War veteran is handed the most glorious lines and bits of business in the movie) and feisty Rags Ragland (who is most inventively assisted by some of the neatest special effects work I've ever seen). Blustering George Bancroft deserves an honorable Guernsey too. The episode in which he is ingeniously and hilariously relieved of his jacket and vest is another stunner. I liked Hobart Cavanaugh's scene at the License Office too. In fact the whole support cast is top-notch. Simon's direction is smooth as silk. And by "B" standards, production values are incredibly proficient. Only a couple of obvious backdrops give the tight budget away.

This was the first time I've seen one of Red Skelton's "Whistling" movies. Seeing him always about to act crazy whenever someone mentions "murder" was good for some laughs as was some of his wisecracks and a few slapstick moments. Rags Ragsland was also good playing two roles as both a good and bad guy. Ann Rutherford made a nice foil for Red. After a while, some of the dialogue and action threatened to seem repetitious but by the climax, a few more laughs were earned. Anyway, overall, I was pretty entertained by Whistling in Dixie. P.S. The reason I watched this just now is because since I recently watched the Our Gang shorts in chronological order, I thought I'd also look at some of the films outside of the series that featured it least one member. This one had a scene with Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas talking to Rags.

Sequel to Whistling in the Dark has Red Skelton once again playing radio star Wally "The Fox" Benton. This time he's headed to Georgia along with his fiancée Carol (Ann Rutherford). There they get mixed-up with a mystery involving Carol's old sorority sister and a treasure hunt. Red and Ann are both good fun in this delightful comedy. Solid support from George Bancroft, Guy Kibbee, Celia Travers, and Rags Ragland. Rags plays a dual role in an amusing follow-up to the last movie. In addition to adorable Ann Rutherford, Diana Lewis provides the pretty. It's not quite as good as Whistling in the Dark but it's still a very enjoyable comedy-mystery. Lots of funny gags. Also lots of awful fake Southern accents.

After capturing members of a murderous cult in "Whistling in the Dark", radio star Red Skelton heads down to the land of cotton (with his fiancée Ann Rutherford) where old times have definitely not been forgotten. There, he runs into the look-alike brother of his old rival (Rags Ragland) and the mystery of a missing local who had recently found a treasure chest full of old British coins (and worthless Confederate money). Guy Kibbee is the family patriarch, a sort of Tom O'Hara ("Gone With the Wind") in modern dress. His daughter (Celia Travers) and niece (Diana Lewis) are in a feud over the missing man (Mark Daniels), and all of a sudden, the escaped convict (also Ragland) shows up to add to the confusion.Some of the silliness goes overboard, giving recollection to a few recent Bob Hope films ("The Cat and the Canary" and "The Ghost Breakers") and many other comedy/mysteries of the era. But the conclusion (involving much of the cast) provides lots of slapstick as the group struggles to get out of a water filled fort, and continues as they fight the true villains. Then, the laughs come fast and furious. If you can get through the duller first half of the movie, this makes it all worth it.