Mississippi

I've seen this about twice, but many years ago. Perhaps a corny, old fashioned melodrama, but you get the combination of a very young Bing Crosby singing sweetly, and a very funny W.C. Fields. In one scene, Fields' character is setting in the Cabin bragging (telling lies,of course) about his exploits as an "Indian Fighter". A "Cigar-Store Indian" is being carried along the deck, and as it passes his window, he does a double-take, and proclaims: "Of course now, the Red Man and I have smoked the pipe of peace". I believe that circa 2001 some people find this racist. I felt that scene actually MADE FUN of his blustering attitude, and gave all people of good nature a laugh on the character.

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.

"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 haven't seen Mississippi in years but would buy it if released to video. Sometimes less is more and that is the case with W.C. who is hilarious in a supporting role. I suspect the movie would raise the PC bar higher than it's owner cares to leap, but if you get a chance to see it and you are a Field's fan it is well worth the time.

"Mississippi" (Paramount, 1935), directed by A. Edward Sutherland, is a memorable event featuring crooner Bing Crosby and comedian WC Fields on screen for the only time. From the story by Booth Tarkington, it was filmed twice before: a 1924 silent with Cullen Landis and Mary Astor; and as a 1929 talkie titled "River of Romance" starring Buddy Rogers and Mary Brian, both for Paramount, but this third adaptation to the silver screen remains the best known.

Set in the South in the late 1800s, Bing Crosby plays Tom Grayson, a Northern gentleman engaged to marry Elvira Rumford (Gail Patrick), but loses his honor and her respect when he refuses to duel with Major Patterson (John Miljan), the man who actually wanted Elvira's hand in marriage. Tom leaves the plantation a disgrace, but before he goes, he is approached by Elvira's younger sister, Lucy (Joan Bennett) who tells him that she loves him. However, Tom, feeling this to be only a schoolgirl crush on her part, goes and bids the "little shrimp" farewell. Tom then joins a show boat headed by Commodore Orlando Jackson (WC Fields), who tries to teach him the meaning of defending his honor. Later, during a performance, Tom is threatened by a Captain Blackie (Fred Kohler Sr.) to stop singing, but he continues just the same. Because of this a fight ensues between Tom and Blackie, and Blackie is accidentally shot by his own pistol. This gives Tom confidence to go on singing to his audience and become a stronger person. With the help of Jackson, Tom is given the big build-up as the notorious "Singing Killer," and being the man who has killed more than one man, which isn't true. However, the ever more confident Tom (now sporting a mustache and looking more debonair) decides to the Rumford plantation and proves himself a braver man to General Rumford (Claude Gillingwater Sr.), Lucy and Elvira's Southern father. But which one of the sisters does Tom get to take back with him as his bride?

Aside from Fields' antics and his imaginative story telling leaving his on screen listeners to find very hard to believe, "Mississippi" is a welcome change for Bing Crosby, especially with his fighting scene with Kohler, which looks very realistic enough to appear as a real fight. (Kohler met the same fate playing the same role in the 1929 remake). I personally find the songs written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart first rate and beautiful to hear, which include "Row, Mississippi" (sung by Queenie Smith and the Five Cabin Kids); "Soon," "Down By the River" and "So Easy to Remember" (all sung by Crosby). Of all the songs, I'll vote "Easy to Remember" to be one of the best songs ever sung on screen by Crosby, who is really "Easy to Remember and Hard to Forget." Crosby sings that song with grace and charm that one can listen to over and over again. Crosby also gets to sing a Stephen Foster song with the Five Cabin Kids earlier in the story titled "Swanee River" in a sentimental and throaty manner.

Also in the cast are Jan Duggan (a familiar face in several Fields comedies), and Paul Hurst. Look fast for a young Ann Sheridan as one of the students in an all-girls school sequence with Bennett. Sheridan has a line or two in the story and its very recognizable. Miss Bennett's performance should not go unnoticed in which she starts off as the childish younger sister transformed to a mature woman whom Crosby continues to call "a little shrimp." "Mississppi" is enjoyable SHOW BOAT type musical rarely shown at all these days. For the benefit to those who feel it was never presented on cable television, American Movie Classics did premiere it on April 14, 1992 (along with a couple of other Fields comedies he did for Paramount), and was aired several times thereafter before ending its AMC run in early 1993. One can only hope "Mississippi" will get to see the light on the TV screen again someday. (***)