Dixiana

Forgive my Southern accent but this one darlin' is jes' plain awful. Typical of its time,1930--the early days of the talkie--this hodgepodge of comedy and drama is a Ziegfeld-style extravaganza that mixes bad melodrama and mediocre operetta songs with lots of very pretty girls in outrageous costumes. The plot, if you choose to call it that, is interrupted on occasion with feeble comic relief, mostly by the great team of Woolsey and Wheeler trying their best to make something out of little, and by a Dutch comic, Joseph Cawthorn, speaking in a Jewish accent. (He even calls his son, the Metropolitan Opera baritone Everett Marshall, a schlemiel.) On the plus side, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson dances for three minutes, and Max Steiner ("Gone With the Wind") did the orchestrations for which he received his first screen credit. The film was a big flop and lost RKO studios 300,000 dollars. Fortunately, W&W went on to do better things, and a few years later King Kong and Fred and Ginger came along to make up that loss.

Back in 1930 RKO was like all the other studios, churning out musicals to please an audience hungry for the new rage of talking pictures. 'Dixiana' was meant to cash in on the success of 'Rio Rita', the Ziegfeld show that became a movie in 1929, and used many of the same cast - the lovely Bebe Daniels in the title role (very like Jeanette MacDonald in this), plus comic relief from Wheeler and Woolsey and pretty Dorothy Lee. The big mistake was in casting Met star Everett Marshall as the male lead; an opera singer with an excellent voice but no acting ability whatever.

Add to this mix Joseph Cawthorn and Jobyna Howland as Marshall's parents (Ms Howland goes to town with her over-acting!); plus Mr Bojangles in his debut film appearance (a 3 minute solo); and a two-strip Technicolor finale. The musical numbers are fine (mostly for Everett Marshall and Bebe Daniels; although there's a cute song for Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee about halfway into the film).

I've seen this film described as a 'prehistoric turkey', but I wouldn't put it down that much. It has its high points (the colour sequence looks great and is a hoot) and it is about as complete a restoration as you could ask for. And it is the only Wheeler and Woolsey currently on DVD; we need more of their mad movies commercially available. 'Dixiana' is patchy but it isn't prehistoric!

DIXIANA (RKO Radio, 1930), adapted and directed by Luther Reed, was the studio's follow-up to its highly successful RIO RITA (1929) by reuniting its director with lead performers of Bebe Daniels, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey and Dorothy Lee. Though John Boles appeared as Daniels' love interest in the the Florenz Ziegfeld stage musical of RIO RITA, this latest edition, an original premise with story and lyrics by Anne Caldwell, features baritone Everett Marshall in his place. Shifting settings from Mexico to the old pre-Civil War South, DIXIANA also repeats the final celebration event with filmed Technicolor process with lavish sets and costumes.

Set in 1840s New Orleans, the story opens with Carl Van Horn (Everett Marshall), whose father, Cornelius (Joseph Cawthorne), better known as the Philadelphia Dutchman, watching the slaves on his Southern plantation. Carl loves Dixiana Caldwell (Bebe Daniels), a circus performer at Cayetano's Hyppodrome, whom he wants to marry. After watching Dixiana perform for the audience, Carl encounters her rival suitor, Montagu (Ralf Harolde) who would rather pistol dual with him than lose the petticoat circus girl he loves. Regardless, Carl proposes and she happily accepts, taking her circus friends, Peewee (Bert Wheeler) and Ginger Dandy (Robert Woolsey) along with her to Carl's plantation for the festivity with his family at his plantation. Unfortunately, Carl's social-climbing stepmother, Birdie (Jobyna Howland) disapproves of both future bride and her "distinguished gentlemen" friends enough to insult them in front of guests. Not wanting to come between Carl and his family, Dixiana leaves with her friends to return to the circus, only to find herself working for Montagu and company at his New Orleans gambling house instead. As Peewee and Ginger are reunited with their old friend, Nanny (Dorothy Lee), Dixiana encounters Carl once more, finding him losing heavily at the gambling tables to his enemy, Montagu. Others in the cast are Edward Chandler (Blondell); and Eugene Jackson (Cupid).

Songs by Harry Tierney, Anne Caldwell and Benny Davis are as follows: "Mr. and Mrs. Sippi" (sung by Everett Marshall during opening titles); "Dixiana" (sung by chorus); "I Am Your Lady Love" (sung by Bebe Daniels); "Here's to the Old Days" (sung by Marshall); "A Tear, a Kiss, a Smile" (sung by Daniels); "My Generation: (sung by chorus/Daniels); "My One Ambition is You" (sung by Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee); "Dixiana" (sung by Daniels); "My One Ambition is You" (chorus, background score); "Dixiana," "No Matter Who Wins, I'm Lost" (sung by Daniels); "Dixiana," "Mardi Gras," "A Love Loved a Soldier" (sung by Robert Woolsey); "Mr. and Mrs. Sippi" (tap dance solo by Bill Robinson); "You Are My Guiding Star" (sung by Marshall and Daniels), "Here's to the Old Days" (instrumental) and "Dixiana" (finale). Of its handful of tunes "Here's to the Old Days" appears to be the film's best song while Bill Robinson's tap dancing being the film's other highlight.

Regardless of DIXIANA not being as successful as RIO RITA, possibly because of its lack of chemistry between Daniels and Marshall (who resembles Mexican actor Antonio Moreno), their scenes together are actually limited due to extensive footage more on the battling married couple (Joseph Cawthorne and Jobyna Howland), song numbers and the comic antics provided by Wheeler and Woolsey, particularly their gag involving participants picking up three cigars individually without saying "ouch."

DIXIANA would be Daniels' last musical for the studio before shifting to straight dramatic roles for RKO and later Warner Brothers before returning to a musical role in the now classic 42nd STREET (1933). Marshall on the other hand would appear in one more motion picture, I LIVE FOR LOVE (Warner Brothers, 1935) opposite Dolores Del Rio. Marshall might have had a chance in musical films, but disappeared after two movie roles to his resume. For the last Wheeler and Woolsey where they work as supporting players, they would star in a series of fine comedies for the studio (1930-1937).

For many years, it was claimed that the final 20-minute Technicolor sequence featuring Bill Robinson's tap dance solo was lost. When DIXIANA was sold to television (namely New York City's WOR, Channel 9 in November 1956), the movie played with the closing left unresolved. This incomplete print was later distributed to video cassette from Video Yesteryear in the 1980s. Fortunately, the Technicolor conclusion had been found, restored and surfaced in revival movie houses, and cable television starting with Turner Network Television (TNT) in December 1988, followed by American Movie Classics (1991-1993) and finally Turner Classic Movies (after 1994) before availability in full 98 minute glory on DVD. Though uneven in spots, DIXIANA is worthwhile rediscovery of musicals produced during the early days of sound. (** cigars)

A real artifact of the earliest talkies and musicals, which includes the first two-strip Technicolor (the last half of the movie). The romance between a New Orleans cabaret singer (Bebe Daniels) and the scion of a plantation (Everett Marshall) is your basic boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl-due-to-misunderstanding-her-selfless-action, boy-gets-girl-back story......all this interspersed with singing, dancing, vaudeville routines (Wheeler & Woolsey), circus acts, chorus girls, contortionists, evil machinations of an oily villain, a near duel, and superb tap-dancing (Bill Robinson)!

The dialog and acting are painfully weak and the storyline lurches roughly from scene to scene - often with little sense or continuity. The 75-year-old film is sharply dated by several instances of slaves in the background singin' and workin' happily for their beloved master and being called "boy" instead of by name. The impending Civil War is totally ignored.

Still, I recommend "Dixiana" as valuable viewing for its historical Technicolor sequence as well as its illustration of the then-prevailing movie fiction of happy slaves working for benign masters in the sweet and gentle South.

Wheeler and Woolsey musical comedy set in the pre-Civil War South is a mixed bag. The comedy duo are not the "stars" of the picture, rather that is Bebe Daniels. Wheeler and Woolsey are instead the comic relief and they do a good job of creating laughs. The plot concerns the pair attempting to make sure that the wedding of their sister goes off with out a hitch. Its a big scale musical of the kind they don't make any more.

The film is based on a Broadway show and while it is suitably spectacular at times it suffers from the problem many films of the time suffered from and that is an uncertainty of camera usage. Because of the sound equipment was noisy and large directors and studios were still struggling with how to shoot scenes or move a camera, here the camera is either moving nicely or painfully nailed down. Its a tough slog. Then again the film's operetta style music is really not my cup of tea.

If you like musicals its worth a try, especially if you're interested in the history of movie musicals.

(I do have to say that rarely have I ever felt a movie recreated a bygone era as well as this film does. Hollywood flourishes aside this film really does feel as if you're watching something from long ago in the deep south)