Tonight's Movie: Mississippi (1935) - A Universal Blu-ray Review

MISSISSIPPI (1935), starring Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields, has just been released on Blu-ray by Universal.

This is a film I've long wanted to see due to its leading ladies, favorites Joan Bennett and Gail Patrick.

Bing plays Tom Grayson, a Quaker-raised Philadelphian now living in the South.

Tom is newly engaged to Elvira (Patrick), but when her former suitor shows up at the engagement party and challenges Tom to a duel for "stealing" his sweetheart, Tom thinks it's absurd and refuses.

Elvira is insulted Tom won't defend her "honor" and immediately breaks the engagement, to the joy of her little sister Lucy (Bennett), a schoolgirl who secretly loves Tom herself.

Tom takes a job on a showboat run by Commodore Jackson (Fields), where Tom ironically becomes known as "Colonel Steele, the Singing Killer."

Eventually, Tom reunites with Lucy, but even the loyal Lucy is shocked by Tom's new identity -- or maybe she's just bothered by his unfortunate-looking mustache?

This is quite a short film, running just 73 minutes, and I'd class it as mildly entertaining. There's little depth to the characters, especially Elvira, whose instant breaking of her engagement reveals no real feelings for her fiance.

Bennett was about 25 when this was made, and her Lucy is delightful, especially in a scene where she confesses her feelings for Tom; however, again we have no character insights into why she loves him, other than that he's Bing Crosby. Bennett has nice comedic timing, while her longing is also moving, and occasionally signs of Bennett's more mature 1940s film persona peek through in her line deliveries.

Bing's performance is somewhat pallid, almost too calm and emotionless; as I've watched more of his '30s films I've come to realize it took time for him to develop the comfortalbe onscreen persona I associate with Bing. That said, he sings songs by Rodgers and Hart, and there are a couple funny sequences with Fields, especially one involving a card game with way too many aces on the table.

In the end, MISSISSIPPI is nothing particularly special, but it's a pleasant enough way to spend a little over an hour, especially for those who are fans of the cast or Rodgers and Hart (and who isn't?!).

The cast also includes Queenie Smith, Claude Gillingwater, John Miljan, Paul Hurst, and Stanley Andrews.

Future film noir star Dennis O'Keefe can be clearly seen as an extra during the engagement party sequence. Ann Sheridan is apparently one of Bennett's school friends, but I didn't pick her out of the group.

The movie was directed by A. Edward Sutherland and the uncredited Wesley Ruggles. It was filmed in black and white by Charles Lang and the uncredited Karl Struss.

Universal previously released this film on DVD in a six-film Crosby set as part of their "Backlot" series; later it was a single-title DVD release in the Universal Vault series.

The Blu-ray print has some speckles and is perhaps a bit less "cleaned up" than some of Universal's other recent Blu-ray releases, but overall it's fine, without any large flaws or distracting skips or jumps. Especially for those of us who grew up watching films via terrible TV prints, this disc is quite satisfactory. Sound quality is fine.

There are no extras, but optional English-language subtitles are provided.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Universal for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. It may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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