Dixiana

DIXIANA is a jumbled, messy early musical. The comic relief sections tend to be more lively than the central romance, which is only salvaged by the charm of Bebe Daniels, though your taste for non-screwball 1930s comedy will ordain how much you will or will not enjoy the movie as a whole. The drama is pure hokum, all about a circus performer falling for a rich heir to a plantation and trying to "leave him to save him from social disgrace"-- if you've seen a good deal of 1920s-1930s Hollywood movies, that plot and the characters found therein will be very familiar.

As an early talkie, the film has some fluid camerawork, such as a tracking shot through a gambling house, though the dialogue scenes are static. Apparently, the ending was shot in two-strip Technicolor, but the print I saw was all in black-and-white. As it was, the film ends quite abruptly anyway, so color would not have improved my feelings on this historically interesting but ultimately forgettable piece of movie history anyhow.

This was the first movie I purchased with Bebe Daniels! It is pretty good considering when it was made! The jokes never stop and the inuendos are way ahead of their time! I was totally amused with the interaction between the prospective groom's father and stepmother in this film! As I said earlier, the double entendres were plentiful in that relationship! The comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey were just downright hilarious and the tapdance sequence in technicolor (Bill Robinson, "Bojangles") was absolutely wonderful! Such a rare opportunity to see something like that! The Mardi Gras finale is also rare as it was cut from TV prints for a long time! That is in technicolor also! I ordered the DVD, so if anyone is interested, please email me and I can tell you where to find it online for a very reasonable price!

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.

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)

All right, putting aside the stereotypical characterizations of Old South slaves not to mention many operatic songs that date this movie today, I rather enjoyed this early talkie musical with the two-strip Technicolor that was used in the final sequence. I mean, I was a little disappointed how little Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey were used but when they were on screen, they were quite amusing. And seeing Dorothy Lee & Wheeler sing is always a treat and it was a nice surprise to see Woolsey have his own number here as well. Oh, and for both historical and entertainment purposes, an African-American tap dancer named Bill "Bojangles" Robinson does his thing in his film debut and in that color sequence, to boot! So on that note, Dixiana is a worthy movie to watch if you're interested in these old movies like yours truly. P.S. Though this supposedly takes place in New Orleans (where I only live a 2-hour drive from), I'm guessing this was wholly shot on a studio back lot.