Mississippi (1935)

Director:

Wesley Ruggles

Writers:

Francis Martin (screenplay) and
Jack Cunningham (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 March 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Plot:

A young pacifist after refusing on principle to defend her sweetheart's honor and being banished in disgrace...

Plot Keywords:

Riverboat | Singer | Sister | Gunfire | Maid

Cast

Bing Crosby	...	Tom Grayson
W.C. Fields	...	Commodore Jackson
Joan Bennett	...	Lucy
Gail Patrick	...	Elvira
Queenie Smith	...	Alabam
Claude Gillingwater	...	General Rumford
John Miljan	...	Major Patterson
Jan Duggan	...	Thrilled Passenger in Pilot House
Fred Kohler	...	Captain Blackie
Edward Pawley	...	Joe Patterson
Paul Hurst	...	Hefty
Theresa Maxwell Conover	...	Miss Markham
The Cabin Kids	...	The Inki Kids - Musical Ensemble
John Larkin	...	Rumbo
Libby Taylor	...	Lavinia

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:Approved (PCA #540)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

When Bing Crosby was cast, he requested another song be added. However, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart had already returned to New York. The song, "It's Easy To Remember", was composed by the duo back east and they then sent a demo record back to Hollywood. It wound up becoming the film's biggest hit.

Quotes:

Commodore Jackson: ...unsheathing my Bowie knife, I cut a path through this wall of human flesh, dragging my canoe behi
[wooden Indian passes by the door whose top half is open, startling him]
Commodore Jackson: ...
[cough]
Commodore Jackson: ... behind me. Since that time of course, the noble red man and his pale faced friends have smoked the pipe of peace.
[another Indian passes by - pause and cringes]
Commodore Jackson: Why I wouldn't of more think now of harming a hair on a red man's head than I would sticking a fork in my mother's back. Heh... why, some of my best friends are Indians... Shug Indians.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hoi Polloi (1935)

Soundtrack:

There's No Place Like Home (Home, Sweet Home)

Something of a lost classic

With songs by Rodgers and Hart and Bing singin' 'em and W C Fields providing the, frankly magnificent, comedy this is something of an undervalued and lost classic. Perhaps the very un-pc references to 'darkies' and 'picaninnys' has somewhat devalued its reputation but you have to remember that Hollywood didn't wake up racially until at least the 1950's and nothing in this film is as offensive as, say, John Ford's grossly condescending "The Sun Shines Bright", (even if that film still remains a masterpiece of Americana). In fact, I can't imagine anyone taking offense at this terrific piece of fluff that also includes a very young Joan Bennett as Crosby's love interest. A Edward Sutherland's direction is considerably more than workmanlike, (Wesley Ruggles is said to have a hand in it. too), and it all clocks in at a remarkably crisp 73 minutes.