Mississippi (1935)

Set in the Old South, a gentleman (Bing Crosby) loses his honor and the respect of his fiancee (Gail Patrick) after he refuses to engage in a duel. After taking a singing job on a riverboat, he must learn to regain his confidence with the help of a quirky captain (W.C. Fields). Based on the novel MAGNOLIA by Booth Tarkington (THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS) and directed by A. Edward Sutherland (THE INVISIBLE WOMAN). The third version of the Tarkington novel (previously filmed in 1924 and 1929). A mess of a movie! It's a musical with songs by the great Rodgers and Hart but none of the songs are memorable and the film reeks of a glamorized Old South which Hollywood seemed enamored of in the 1930s and 40s. Black people are referred to as "darkies" and their children as "pickaninnies", get the picture? Obviously, I don't "get" W.C. Fields at all as I've never found him funny and I'm not a Crosby fan (at least, not without Bob Hope) so the movie was a slog for me to get through. The mixture of comedy with the code of the Old South (duels and all that nonsense) which is taken seriously doesn't jell well. With Joan Bennett, Queenie Smith and John Miljan.