L'affaire du Fort Dixon

In Georgia, Martin Gordon is murdered in Fort Dixon as someone whistles Dixie. Hattie Lee discovers the body but when she brings everybody to the site, the body had disappeared. Martin was involved in a love triangle with Hattie and her cousin Ellamae Downs. Judge George Lee produces a letter from Martin that he's leaving town to avoid romantic troubles. Ellamae sends a beetle to her friend Carol Lambert (Ann Rutherford) and invites her to a murder investigation. Carol's boyfriend is radio personality and amateur detective Wally Benton (Red Skelton) known as The Fox.

This is a fun screwball murder mystery with Red Skelton. He delivers the jokes. Some of which are understandably anti-Japanese racist. Rutherford returns to join him in the duo. It ends with some fun slapstick. All in all, it is fun and of its times.

Gosh. The first film in this series had some rather amazing construction. It was a show about a show that had an anti-show: a radio broadcaster who did fictional mysteries, did a real one by broadcasting backwards through the radio! Red was along to do some facial gags and they added some value.

Based on the success of that, we have this. A whole new crew was involved, including no one from the seven (!) original writers. Red and his lover find themselves in the deep south and involved with a Confederate treasure. The only reason for the construction was so that MGM could use its new water set. Was this the first movie that had a closed room filling with water? Broke pipe, you know, and the trapped folks pouring out when the door was opened?

It could be.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

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 at least one member. This one had a scene with Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas talking to Rags.

Although the slapstick is pretty heavy at times, especially toward the wild climactic scene that winds up the whole story, WHISTLING IN DIXIE has all the ingredients that made the Bob Hope films successful in the '40s, with Hope as the cowardly male lead being intimidated by gangster-type bullies.

Here it's RED SKELTON who seems to have inherited Hope's gag writers, because all of the jokes could just as well have been hand-me-downs from Hope during his heyday. Skelton plays "The Fox", a radio sleuth who solves impossible crimes, and is lured to Georgia by his girlfriend when one of her friends is in a dire situation requiring the kind of help "The Fox" can offer.

Lots of fun ensues when Skelton arrives at a spooky Georgian mansion, and some of the sight gags involving RAGS RAGLAND (in a twin role--one good, one bad), are quite funny although they tend to be overdone by the time the last reel is reached.

ANN RUTHERFORD has a flair for light comedy that makes her a good mate for Skelton and the rest of the cast goes along with the gags and pratfalls in a professional manner. DIANA LEWIS lays on the Southern accent a little too thick, but this is probably for comedy effect. GEORGE BANCROFT, GUY KIBBEE and PETER WHITNEY have fun with good supporting roles.

Summing up: Good fun, if you like these sort of slapstick murder mysteries.

Whistling in Dixie finds Red Skelton as radio detective the Fox and gal pal Ann Rutherford away in Georgia where Red's kind of faked an illness so he and Rutherford can get away and maybe get married down there. Rutherford has another agenda as well. Her old sorority sister Diana Lewis has sent her a pre-arranged signal that the sisters have in one needs help.

Finding out that there is a five day waiting period in Georgia, the two of them get involved in a mystery where Lewis has witnessed a murder, but no body can be found. It all leads to some buried Confederate treasure in an old arsenal guarded by Civil War veteran Lucien Littlefield who's a might addled.

Rags Ragland appears here as twins, both are convicts, one quite a bit nastier than the other. This film marked the farewell performance of George Bancroft as the sheriff who retired right after Whistling In Dixie was in the can.

And of course unless you got Raymond Walburn, no film like this would be complete without Guy Kibbee as an expansive, mint julep drinking, son of the South colonel.

With that kind of cast, this film can't miss being funny and the comedy is eternal.