A Southern Yankee (1948)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Such a frustrating disappointment

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

If you watch this movie half asleep, it soon becomes nearly impossible to decipher which characters are Union, which are in Union uniforms who actually are Confederate spies, which are Confederate, which are in Confederate uniforms who actually are Union spies, which are civilians dressed up in one uniform or another, and which are totally incompetent at their jobs (which apparently includes the majority of the characters in this 1948 black and white film, which apparently was considered a comedy in its time).Similarly, nowadays if you watch the major cable news networks in the U.S. in the SLEEPING BEAUTY-like slumber spell that seems to have engulfed the majority of the citizenry, it is nearly impossible to tell who are Labor Party stalwarts, or which laborites actually are Greed Party sympathizers in Labor's clothing. While it is not THAT difficult to identify hard-core Greedsters, there apparently are a significant number that actually may be Labor at heart, but just toe the Greed Party line for the money. Most amazingly, half of the civilian laborers support the Greed Party, which shows what you can accomplish in the way of brain-washing with the current choke-hold the GP has on the mass media. Which is why A SOUTHERN YANKEE is a perfect mindless diversion from today's realities (such as the fact that every state of the Ol' Confederacy is now a TAKER--as in, they take more than their fair share of per capita national tax dollars, while every state that helped free the slaves 150 years ago is now a DONOR, as in their citizens let themselves be ripped off by the descendants of the treasonous losers).

Although with Buster Keaton working as gag man on this film and while he did have a lot of influence on this film, A Southern Yankee had other influences besides Keaton's famous general. For myself I caught a bit of Duck Soup in the mix and also the plot premise is the same one as two very serious previous films.The idea of two spies falling in love with each other was done as serious drama in the British film Dark Journey with Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt. Later on it was used by MGM in their musical The Firefly that starred Jeanette MacDonald and Allan Jones. But I think someone at MGM must have thought this could be the basis of a comedy, it may have been Buster Keaton who thought it would be a good film idea for Red Skelton.A Southern Yankee finds Red Skelton as a bellboy in St. Louis who is a northern sympathizer and wants to do something for the Union cause. Given that he's a klutz, Red's dismissed by all the parties involved.But when he accidentally captures a notorious Confederate agent, the army sees a chance to use him and sends him south with some fake plans for a southern general and a message for one of the Union undercover men. Red's willing, but the spirit is weak especially around Arlene Dahl who is the daughter of Confederate general Charles Dingle. And he's got some other double agents and triple agents to deal with like Brian Donlevy, John Ireland, and George Coulouris.It's hard to describe A Southern Yankee from here on because the gags come fast and furious. Red's two trips to the dentist was one long sustained gag and very good. Of course the gag remembered best is the one where Red is trapped with both the Blue and Gray firing at him from opposite directions. He manages to escape that predicament in a truly interesting manner I won't reveal.And if you don't think that A Southern Yankee might have had a bit of inspiration from the serious films I cited, if you've seen both Dark Journey and The Firefly, you'll know exactly A Southern Yankee ends.

I remember Red mostly from TV in the 50s. To my knowledge I had not seen even one of his films until this one a few years ago.I found it amusing and well worth the viewing time.It's also in something of a counterpoint to most of his TV sketch comedy which was too broad and pointless to me even as a child.One of the interesting features of this film was that it was set in the American Civil War and was mostly a comedy. The film was produced in the late 40s (I think) in a period when most - if not all - Civil War films were completely dramatic ("Gone with the Wind" had a few pointedly amusing lines from Rhett Butler but was a serious film.) The Civil War by then was some 80 years in the past, but the South was still very much the South, so to lampoon the South in any way (even if also the Union received comic dusting) would seem to me as quite a stretch by the producers. Like they were willing to write the South off their distribution lists.Bottom line, Red was much better than I can ever remember seeing him and that alone was worth it.

Contrary to popular belief, A SOUTHERN YANKEE is NOT a remake of Buster Keaton's 1927 silent THE GENERAL. Both films take place during the American Civil War and include gags devised by Keaton -- other than that, there's little resemblance. (The only remake of THE GENERAL is Walt Disney's 1956 THE GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE.) YANKEE's story, by the writing team of Panama and Frank, was later recycled in part for THE COURT JESTER (1956, also by Panama and Frank -- and starring Danny Kaye).Keaton's contributions to YANKEE include his suggestion to the producer that the opening scenes be toned down in order to make Red Skelton's character more sympathetic; the memorable two-sided flag gag (derived from a two-sided costume gag Keaton used in his silent days); some of the climactic chase sequence (a gag with a horse and a dress is lifted directly from Keaton's 1923 OUR HOSPITALITY); and, presumably, the acrobatic dentist sequence and, very likely, the astonishing scene involving a 19th century "lawn mower" and a land mine.