Whistling in Dixie (1942) User Reviews (14)

Y'all Ain't Just........................

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 18 July 2008]

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.

One of the more amusing entries in the series...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 9 November 2007]

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.

Brought to you by Grape-O-Mix

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 21 November 2014]

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.

Another lively mix of gags and suspense

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 27 March 2013]

The sequel to "Whistling In The Dark" is about on the same level with the first film, quality wise: a non-stop barrage of gags, both visual and verbal, and some genuine suspense as well, particularly in an extended sequence near the end where our heroes come alarmingly close to drowning. Red Skelton overdoes the "spasms" gag at the start, but generally he hits the mark ("You don't say....you don't say....you don't say....- "Who was it?" - "He didn't say!") more often than he misses. "Rags" Ragland returns as Sylvester AND his twin brother Chester; creative editing allows the two brothers to interact, and Ragland is one (or two) of the high points of the film. Ann Rutherford is still delightfully scrappy (and sweet), but I missed the sarcastic presence of Virginia Grey. Not "the funniest film ever made", as an old poster proclaims, but funny enough. *** out of 4.

Whistling in Dixie was my first time seeing Red Skelton in his series as "The Fox"

[tavm · 6/10 · 11 February 2015]

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.

The one that went south

[gerdeen-1 · 22 December 2012]

Red Skelton played the radio sleuth known as "the Fox" in three comic mysteries of the early 1940s. All had the word "whistling" in the title.

This is the second of the three, and by far the weakest.

The first one, "Whistling in the Dark," was an excellent remake of the 1933 film of the same. The last one, "Whistling in Brooklyn," was an extremely enjoyable farce. I recommend both.

"Whistling in Dixie" can be funny at times, but too often it's boring. I suspect it was made simply because the title seemed irresistible. The phrase "whistling 'Dixie' " was popular American slang at the time. And Ann Rutherford, who co-starred as the Fox's love interest in all three movies, was best known for her role in a Southern epic, "Gone With the Wind."

This movie is full of corny "Southern" dialog, and there are some dated portrayals of African-Americans. Nothing here is any more more offensive than what you'd find in the typical 1940s film about the segregated South. But gosh, this kind of stuff was tired even then.

Skelton's slapstick routines are weaker than usual. He and Rags Ragland, his sidekick and foil in all three "Whistling" films, work very hard, but some of the material falls flat.

If this movie leaves you cold, don't rush to judgment. You may like the other two "Whistling" entries, because they are much better. And if you love this one, you will definitely want to see the other two.

The Fox in Georgia

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 17 June 2008]

Red Skelton and Ann Rutherford are "Whistling in Dixie" in this 1942 programmer also starring Guy Kibbee and Rags Ragland (in a dual role). Skelton played the role of Wally Benton a couple of times. On radio, Benton is "The Fox," a detective, but in his private life he gets dragged into real mysteries as well. This one is at the behest of a friend of his fiancé's (Rutherford) who asks them to come to Georgia to investigate a murder.

There are some funny moments in this film, but it's rather silly, with a lot of corny jokes, funny faces from Skelton and slapstick. Actually Skelton is much better when he's straightforward - he comes off as sweet, sincere and natural.

Some of the supporting cast has the worst southern accents I've ever heard. It's hard to blame them, though, because these types of films were made very quickly. I'm sure they had no dialect coach. However, the horrible accents were very distracting.

Okay, but "The Fox" isn't one of my favorite detectives.

fun adventure

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 30 June 2020]

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.

Good Old Red

[telegonus · 9/10 · 6 September 2002]

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.

More m-m-m-murder from that courageous coward, "The Fox".

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 7 December 2011]

After capturing members of a murderous cult in "Whistling in the Dark", radio star Red Skelton heads down to the land of cotton (with his fiancée Ann Rutherford) where old times have definitely not been forgotten. There, he runs into the look-alike brother of his old rival (Rags Ragland) and the mystery of a missing local who had recently found a treasure chest full of old British coins (and worthless Confederate money). Guy Kibbee is the family patriarch, a sort of Tom O'Hara ("Gone With the Wind") in modern dress. His daughter (Celia Travers) and niece (Diana Lewis) are in a feud over the missing man (Mark Daniels), and all of a sudden, the escaped convict (also Ragland) shows up to add to the confusion.

Some of the silliness goes overboard, giving recollection to a few recent Bob Hope films ("The Cat and the Canary" and "The Ghost Breakers") and many other comedy/mysteries of the era. But the conclusion (involving much of the cast) provides lots of slapstick as the group struggles to get out of a water filled fort, and continues as they fight the true villains. Then, the laughs come fast and furious. If you can get through the duller first half of the movie, this makes it all worth it.

Oh, what a funny film!

[JohnHowardReid · 9/10 · 23 November 2017]

Red Skelton (Wally Benton), Ann Rutherford (Carol Lambert), George Bancroft (Stagg), Guy Kibbee (Judge Lee), Diana Lewis (Ellamae Downs), Peter Whitney (District Attorney Bailie), Rags Ragland (Chester Conway/Sylvester Conway), Celia Travers (Hattie Lee), Lucien Littlefield (Corporal Lucken), Louis Mason (Deputy Lem), Mark Daniels (Martin Gordon), Emmett Vogan (radio producer), Pierre Watkin (doctor), Hal Le Sueur (sound effects man), Hobart Cavanaugh ("Hanky" Panky), Norman Abbott (attendant), Joseph Crehan (deputy police commissioner), Charles Lung (Brunner), John Wald (radio announcer), Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas (boy who gives directions).

Director: S. SYLVAN SIMON. Screenplay: Nat Perrin. Additional dialogue: Wilkie C. Mahoney. Uncredited screenplay contributors: Jonathan Latimer, Lawrence Hazard. Film editor: Frank Sullivan. Photography: Clyde De Vinna. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Gabriel Scognamillo. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis and Keogh Gleason. Costumes designed by Howard Shoup. Music: Lennie Hayton. Assistant director: Hayes Goetz. Stunts: Gil Perkins. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: George Haight.

Copyright 2 September 1942 by Loew's, Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture. New York opening at Loew's Criterion: 30 December 1942. Australian release: 2 December 1943 (sic). 6,628 feet. 74 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Wally Benton, alias "The Fox" (a super-sleuth of the airwaves), doesn't want to get married in Georgia, but his bride-to- be insists on answering a call for help from a former sorority sister.

NOTES: Second of the three Whistling movies. The others: Whistling in the Dark (1941) and Whistling in Brooklyn (1943). All were directed by S. Sylvan Simon, and all three starred Red Skelton and Ann Rutherford.

COMMENT: Oh, what a funny film! True, it takes a while to start producing more than an occasional mild chuckle, but the screenplay cleverly builds up to an absolutely side-splitting series of suspensefully comic misadventures.

The last half-hour is uproariously funny. In fact the sequence in which the doddering corporal attempts to open a locked door gets my vote as the Most Amusing Scene of All Time.

Even Mr. Skelton (who tries hard — perhaps too hard — from go to whoa), finally manages to raise a really good laugh or two, although he is brilliantly upstaged by both Lucien Littlefield (whose Civil War veteran is handed the most glorious lines and bits of business in the movie) and feisty Rags Ragland (who is most inventively assisted by some of the neatest special effects work I've ever seen).

Blustering George Bancroft deserves an honorable Guernsey too. The episode in which he is ingeniously and hilariously relieved of his jacket and vest is another stunner.

I liked Hobart Cavanaugh's scene at the License Office too. In fact the whole support cast is top-notch.

Simon's direction is smooth as silk. And by "B" standards, production values are incredibly proficient. Only a couple of obvious backdrops give the tight budget away.

A sequel to a remake...

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 30 December 2015]

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.

Watered Down

[tedg · 4 July 2010]

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.

**

[edwagreen · 4/10 · 8 March 2017]

Less than enthusiastic 1942 Red Skelton vehicle where he stars as a radio sleuth who goes with his girlfriend down south to get married, and instead both get caught up in a supposed murder mystery.

Rags Ragland steals the film playing twin brothers- a chauffeur and convicted killer who escapes and is constantly confusing Skelton in the resulting mayhem that ensues.

3 years after Gone With the Wind, Ann Rutherford is reduced to playing his girlfriend, literally up to her neck in adventure.

Trouble is that in this less than 75 minute film, the real killers are identified and all concerned are trapped below with water sprouting as they are slowly drowning. Of course, they have to find a way out of their dilemma. The picture couldn't really find a way out of its dilemma, unfortunately.