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This early Red Skelton comedy is one of several in which he portrayed an actor who was a radio detective called the Fox who also got mixed up in real mysteries, is quite agreeable, at times very funny, and handsomely filmed. The supporting cast, including pretty Ann Rutherford, and the not so pretty George Bancroft and Guy Kibbee, is good and doesn't play in the usual fright film spoof manner. This one isn't really all that inferior to the kind of film Bob Hope, Danny Kaye or for that matter Abbott and Costello were making at around the same time, but Skelton's appeal hasn't worn the years well. Like most comedians he tended to play "innocent" characters, but in his case there was a country bumpkin aspect. Skelton is decidedly not a city guy even when he's playing one. He looks out of place walking down a busy New York street in a double-breasted suit and fedora. There's a child-like quality to him, with none of the knowingness of a Harpo or a Lou Costello, that makes him at times embarrassing to watch. He belongs to another time, when people woke up to roosters rather than alarm clocks, and the first thing they did after breakfast was milk the cow, not jog around the block five times. Modern day hipness has eradicated the country boy sensibility, or removed it from the mainstream; and to a large degree hipness has become almost dictatorial, and can be measured by the extent to which naivite of any sort has been obliterated in our culture. Skelton's films offer a fascinating glimpse of a bygone era, as we can clearly see that behavior that was regarded as quite normal sixty years ago would be considered bizarre by today's standards, and not at all funny.

Anyway, back to Red. One area in which Skelton excels: he believes in the heroic ideal. He may not be the ideal screen hero, but when he swings into action you believe him, or his sincerity anyway; and when he gets the girl you can see him beaming. When Skelton triumphs in these silly comedies it's like virtue triumphing, not because Skelton has so much more virtue than the average person, but because he believes in it. I'd like to see Adam Sandler try that one on for size some time.

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.

Sequel to Whistling in the Dark has Red Skelton once again playing radio star Wally "The Fox" Benton. This time he's headed to Georgia along with his fiancée Carol (Ann Rutherford). There they get mixed-up with a mystery involving Carol's old sorority sister and a treasure hunt. Red and Ann are both good fun in this delightful comedy. Solid support from George Bancroft, Guy Kibbee, Celia Travers, and Rags Ragland. Rags plays a dual role in an amusing follow-up to the last movie. In addition to adorable Ann Rutherford, Diana Lewis provides the pretty. It's not quite as good as Whistling in the Dark but it's still a very enjoyable comedy-mystery. Lots of funny gags. Also lots of awful fake Southern accents.

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.