MISSISSIPPI

US, 1935, 80 minutes, Black and white.
Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields, Joan Bennett, Gail Patrick.
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland.

Mississippi was intended as a star vehicle for the popular singer of the time, Lanny Ross. However, it was considered that Bing Crosby was more popular and he was substituted. He is able to sing several Rodgers and Hart songs.

The film was also notable for a performance by W.C. Fields as the owner of a riverboat. Later commentaries note that Fields’ humour seems particularly racist in hindsight.

The film is a period piece, on the Mississippi River and the showboats. Bing Crosby does not seem quite at home in a period piece – especially as he is called on to fight a duel, refuses – but accidentally kills someone.

Gail Patrick is the leading lady but Joan Bennett plays her younger sister who criticises the duelling code and falls in love with Bing Crosby.

The film is brief, has the atmosphere of the 1930s – and there was a version of Showboat, with Irene Dunne and Alan Jones the following year. It is an opportunity to see an early Bing Crosby as well as to see W.C. Fields in action.

1. How good an example of the musicals of the thirties? Black and white photography, Rodgers and Hart score, sets and atmosphere? The impact of this kind of film then and now?

2. The film as a vehicle for Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields? How successful an example for each of these stars?

3. The presentation of American history and its memory? The thirties looking back at the 19th century?

4. The background of the South? The Southern families, the codes of honour, the belles? The critique of the Southern codes of honour? What impact did this have as regards theme and plot?

5. The interest in the Showboat and its way of life and style? The skipper? Utilizing Colonel Steele for entertainment? The gambling and the way of life on the Showboat? Entertainment?

6. How successful is Bing Crosby as the hero? His criticism of the South, his non-violence, his role as Colonel Steele, his love for the heroine, his singing?

7. What are the characteristics of W.C.Fields' comedy? Were they well exemplified here?

8. How attractive was the heroine? A conventional heroine?

9. How good a musical was this? The quality of the music, the staging of the songs and dances? Conventional? A conventional romance? How good an example of the genre?