A Southern Yankee (1948)

I'll tell you why so serious

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

If you watch this movie half asleep, it soon becomes nearly impossible to decipher which characters are Union, which are in Union uniforms who actually are Confederate spies, which are Confederate, which are in Confederate uniforms who actually are Union spies, which are civilians dressed up in one uniform or another, and which are totally incompetent at their jobs (which apparently includes the majority of the characters in this 1948 black and white film, which apparently was considered a comedy in its time).Similarly, nowadays if you watch the major cable news networks in the U.S. in the SLEEPING BEAUTY-like slumber spell that seems to have engulfed the majority of the citizenry, it is nearly impossible to tell who are Labor Party stalwarts, or which laborites actually are Greed Party sympathizers in Labor's clothing. While it is not THAT difficult to identify hard-core Greedsters, there apparently are a significant number that actually may be Labor at heart, but just toe the Greed Party line for the money. Most amazingly, half of the civilian laborers support the Greed Party, which shows what you can accomplish in the way of brain-washing with the current choke-hold the GP has on the mass media. Which is why A SOUTHERN YANKEE is a perfect mindless diversion from today's realities (such as the fact that every state of the Ol' Confederacy is now a TAKER--as in, they take more than their fair share of per capita national tax dollars, while every state that helped free the slaves 150 years ago is now a DONOR, as in their citizens let themselves be ripped off by the descendants of the treasonous losers).

Whether he's doing purely slapstick stunts or tongue-twisting feats ("the packet in the pocket of the jacket or the packet in the boot with the buckle" kind of stuff), RED SKELTON never misses a moment to get the most out of the series of gags upon which the screenplay of A SOUTHERN YANKEE is built.The fun starts when he accidentally knocks out a real Southern spy known as The Grey Spider (GEORGE COULOURIS) and is chosen to take his place and given fake plans to deliver to the Union troops. Naturally, being the goof-ball that he is, he gets everything mixed up and has to cope with a bunch of hilarious mistakes--and so does everyone else.ARLENE DAHL is amusing as the daughter of a Southern general (CHARLES DINGLE) and makes an amusing foil for many of Skelton's gags. The script has plenty of inventive situations, some of them proposed by none other than Buster Keaton who had his own Southern spy comedy years ago called "The General." BRIAN DONLEVY and JOHN IRELAND are given little to do but cope with Skelton's antics but he's practically the whole show anyway.The brisk comedy directed by Edward Sedgwick is a better than average vehicle for Skelton's comedy style and should definitely please Skelton fans.Note: If this had been made at Paramount, it would have been an ideal vehicle for Bob Hope.

This fun 1948 comedy by Edward Sedgwick is like a cross between "Uncivil Warriors" (the 1935 Three Stooges short with the stooges playing Capt. Dodge, Lt. Duck, and Lt. Hyde) and "Advance to the Rear" (a 1964 comedy starring Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens). It is not quite as zany as the Stooge classic but has more physical comedy than Ford's film, including stunts designed by Buster Keaton. Red Skelton plays Aubrey Filmore, a bumbling hotel bellboy in 1865 St. Louis, who spends most of his working hours tracking down imaginary spies among the guests. Aubrey's bumbling pays off one afternoon when he accidentally knocks out a guest who turns out to be a legendary Confederate spy called the "grey spider". His good fortune continues when a southern belle, Sallyann Weatherby (Arlene Dahl) mistakes him for the spider. Wanting to exploit these events, the Union secret service gives him phony plans to pass along to the enemy and instructions to pass along to another union agent behind enemy lines. Predictably Aubrey gets the two packets of information mixed up and places the union agent and himself in jeopardy. "A Southern Yankee" is quite funny if not especially noteworthy, the cast is solid and the production design of good quality. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Contrary to popular belief, A SOUTHERN YANKEE is NOT a remake of Buster Keaton's 1927 silent THE GENERAL. Both films take place during the American Civil War and include gags devised by Keaton -- other than that, there's little resemblance. (The only remake of THE GENERAL is Walt Disney's 1956 THE GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE.) YANKEE's story, by the writing team of Panama and Frank, was later recycled in part for THE COURT JESTER (1956, also by Panama and Frank -- and starring Danny Kaye).Keaton's contributions to YANKEE include his suggestion to the producer that the opening scenes be toned down in order to make Red Skelton's character more sympathetic; the memorable two-sided flag gag (derived from a two-sided costume gag Keaton used in his silent days); some of the climactic chase sequence (a gag with a horse and a dress is lifted directly from Keaton's 1923 OUR HOSPITALITY); and, presumably, the acrobatic dentist sequence and, very likely, the astonishing scene involving a 19th century "lawn mower" and a land mine.