Mississippi

I loved this film when I saw it on TV as a child, and remember tape recording the sound track and listening to it over and over again. Crosby's voice is resonant and powerful, while still retaining the intimate crooner aspect that made him famous.

I love W. C. Fields, who does some of his best bits ("Women are like elephants. I like to look at them, but I wouldn't want to own one"), and isn't as boozy as he later became. Everything works here, but the underlying racism is disturbing. There is a sort of Steppin' Fetchit character who is slow and drawly, and the Cabin Kids are referred to as pickaninnies. Maybe this is why I only saw it once in about 1967, and never saw it again on TV.

I did just snag a DVD on EBay, but from the look of the primitive cover, and no label at all on the disc, I think it's bootlegged. It's watchable, but not really a good copy. I think there was a commercial disc many years ago, but it's out of print. I hope Turner Classics shows it, as in the past they've shown films with racist content in context, with commentary by a black sociologist. These references may be cringe-inducing, but they are also extremely revealing of a social climate that went uncriticized.

I got lucky and copied Mississippi from I think AMC, about a hundred years ago. My wife and I LOVE IT!...for Joan Bennet...Bing...Gail Patrick...and of course WC.

The film and its characters has a sense of purity, of well, virginity about it that is hard to define yet easy on the eyes.

Every now and again, my wife will imitate WC's classic: "...cutting my way through a wall of human fleeeesh..." and we will sit down to watch it yet again. And love it all over again.

Mississippi may not be one of Field's best movies, but it ranks as one of our favorites.

a nice film about South. beautiful music, high class cast, humor and honor. in fact, a wonderful work because it has charm and courage, a new manner to present delicate problems, a brilliant Bing Crosby, magnificent performance by W. C. Fields ( sure, that could not be a real surprise ) and a wise director who does more than honorable job. the mixture of naivety and ironic picture of society, the fight scenes and the cards play scene, the songs and the air of lost world, soft, bitter and refreshing are pillars of a film who , at second sigh, seems be more than a classic but image for a state of soul. a nice movie. but only at first sigh. because, after a short time it becomes a kind of experience.

"Mississippi" is the culmination of everything Paramount wanted to put in a film. It has a handsome singing star, Bing Crosby. It has a great comedy element with W.C. Fields. It is set in the south on a riverboat, has early Bing songs, Fields as the flim-flam captain, a bunch of Southerners interested in keeping their honor, and throw in a few bad guys, a couple of fights, and that is what Paramount was "paramount" in doing in those days. Bing is cast as a northerner set to marry a southern woman who lives in one of those great plantations, and who has a prettier younger sister. He is challenged by an evil ex-suitor, but won't duel with him. So Bing is cast out in disgrace to sing on Fields' riverboat. Bing has to somehow survive Fields' influence, get back on shore and re-claim his marital "prize". But she is married to the "bad guy". What does Bing do? What is his relationship with the cute younger sister? There just has to be a solid reason for no video never being made of this film. The racial inferences are mild for its day. Crosby is cast as "The Singing Killer" by Fields, quite out of Bing's character, especially later on. The rules of southern honor must have been quite different for a singer from Spokane. All in all this is a very entertaining movie with something for everyone.

If it gets to be on television, tape it. Universal owns the rights to it and has shown not to put it on video yet. For Bing and Fields' fans, this would be a great film to own and to see on a lazy Sunday summer afternoon.

I love W.C. Fields films. This was THE reason I watched "Mississippi"...to see and hear Fields. However, I've hesitated for some time because I really LOVE Fields but am not exactly a huge fan of musicals....especially comedy musicals. "Mississippi" certainly is a comedy musical with a romantic subplot as well. As a result, often the comedy certainly is secondary...well, perhaps tertiary, as there's also a plot involving a Quaker and his perceived manliness. Some folks like this sort of thing, but like the Laurel & Hardy films "March of the Wooden Soldiers" and "The Devil's Brother", I am a bit cold about this sort of hodgepodge...so my hopes for "Mississippi" were rather low.

The story is set mostly on a riverboat filled with entertainers (much like in the movie "Showboat"). Fields plays the captain of the ship (though he calls himself 'The Commodore') and has a few funny interludes here and there. But the main plot involves Tom Grayson (Bing Crosby)...who is engaged with Elvira. However, when Grayson is challenged to a duel over nothing of great importance, he refuses. After all, he's a Quaker AND the matter simply didn't seem worth killing a man over anyway. Well, in antebellum Southern society where Elvira lives, a man isn't a man unless he blows another man's brains out over the least little afront and so she breaks the engagement because Grayson is supposedly a coward. This provides an opportunity for Lucy (Joan Bennett), as she secretly loves Grayson...but she's being sent off to a girls finishing school and he's headed for a job on the riverboat. In the meantime, aboard the boat, the Commodore begins telling everyone that Grayson is the notorious Colonel Steele...a singing killer!!!

While towards the end of the film Crosby doesn't act very Quaker-like, I was surprised that I enjoyed this film and it's various plots. The singing wasn't great, even if the songs were by Rodgers & Hart, but the two subplots were pretty enjoyable. It's well worth seeing...though I would have preferred all Fields and nothing else! By the way, I am pretty sure today that many would be offended by this film. It depicts a highly idealized view of the South and slavery. It also has Fields using a pejorative slur that IMDB won't even allow me to write in this review! A word that was perfectly acceptable back in 1935...but certainly not in 2020. I say watch it...but just be aware of this.