L'affaire du Fort Dixon

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.

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.

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.

A year before, Red Skelton made a remake to the dandy 1930s film "Whistling in the Dark". It was very popular and not surprisingly, he came back a year later in "Whistling in Dixie"--a sequel to a remake. While the continuity is great (as many of the same characters returned and the film logically follows the first one), there are a few stupid aspects of the sequel that make it less than endearing. For example, Rags Raglan returns...as the identical twin to the baddie sent to prison when the first film ended. That's great...but having the bad twin then return and everyone mixing them up was not only contrived but rather tiresome as well. Additionally, Red Skelton really mugged it up from time to time and was, at times, a tad annoying. Perhaps I'm being hard on the film, but I loved Skelton's later films--they were sweet and endearing. This one is a bit tired and only mildly interesting.

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.