Red Skelton (Wally Benton), Ann Rutherford (Carol Lambert), George Bancroft (Stagg), Guy Kibbee (Judge Lee), Diana Lewis (Ellamae Downs), Peter Whitney (District Attorney Bailie), Rags Ragland (Chester Conway/Sylvester Conway), Celia Travers (Hattie Lee), Lucien Littlefield (Corporal Lucken), Louis Mason (Deputy Lem), Mark Daniels (Martin Gordon), Emmett Vogan (radio producer), Pierre Watkin (doctor), Hal Le Sueur (sound effects man), Hobart Cavanaugh ("Hanky" Panky), Norman Abbott (attendant), Joseph Crehan (deputy police commissioner), Charles Lung (Brunner), John Wald (radio announcer), Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas (boy who gives directions).Director: S. SYLVAN SIMON. Screenplay: Nat Perrin. Additional dialogue: Wilkie C. Mahoney. Uncredited screenplay contributors: Jonathan Latimer, Lawrence Hazard. Film editor: Frank Sullivan. Photography: Clyde De Vinna. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Gabriel Scognamillo. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis and Keogh Gleason. Costumes designed by Howard Shoup. Music: Lennie Hayton. Assistant director: Hayes Goetz. Stunts: Gil Perkins. Sound supervisor: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: George Haight. Copyright 2 September 1942 by Loew's, Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture. New York opening at Loew's Criterion: 30 December 1942. Australian release: 2 December 1943 (sic). 6,628 feet. 74 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Wally Benton, alias "The Fox" (a super-sleuth of the airwaves), doesn't want to get married in Georgia, but his bride-to- be insists on answering a call for help from a former sorority sister.NOTES: Second of the three Whistling movies. The others: Whistling in the Dark (1941) and Whistling in Brooklyn (1943). All were directed by S. Sylvan Simon, and all three starred Red Skelton and Ann Rutherford.COMMENT: Oh, what a funny film! True, it takes a while to start producing more than an occasional mild chuckle, but the screenplay cleverly builds up to an absolutely side-splitting series of suspensefully comic misadventures. The last half-hour is uproariously funny. In fact the sequence in which the doddering corporal attempts to open a locked door gets my vote as the Most Amusing Scene of All Time. Even Mr. Skelton (who tries hard — perhaps too hard — from go to whoa), finally manages to raise a really good laugh or two, although he is brilliantly upstaged by both Lucien Littlefield (whose Civil War veteran is handed the most glorious lines and bits of business in the movie) and feisty Rags Ragland (who is most inventively assisted by some of the neatest special effects work I've ever seen). Blustering George Bancroft deserves an honorable Guernsey too. The episode in which he is ingeniously and hilariously relieved of his jacket and vest is another stunner. I liked Hobart Cavanaugh's scene at the License Office too. In fact the whole support cast is top-notch. Simon's direction is smooth as silk. And by "B" standards, production values are incredibly proficient. Only a couple of obvious backdrops give the tight budget away.

This was the first time I've seen one of Red Skelton's "Whistling" movies. Seeing him always about to act crazy whenever someone mentions "murder" was good for some laughs as was some of his wisecracks and a few slapstick moments. Rags Ragsland was also good playing two roles as both a good and bad guy. Ann Rutherford made a nice foil for Red. After a while, some of the dialogue and action threatened to seem repetitious but by the climax, a few more laughs were earned. Anyway, overall, I was pretty entertained by Whistling in Dixie. P.S. The reason I watched this just now is because since I recently watched the Our Gang shorts in chronological order, I thought I'd also look at some of the films outside of the series that featured it least one member. This one had a scene with Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas talking to Rags.

The sequel to "Whistling In The Dark" is about on the same level with the first film, quality wise: a non-stop barrage of gags, both visual and verbal, and some genuine suspense as well, particularly in an extended sequence near the end where our heroes come alarmingly close to drowning. Red Skelton overdoes the "spasms" gag at the start, but generally he hits the mark ("You don't say....you don't say....you don't say....- "Who was it?" - "He didn't say!") more often than he misses. "Rags" Ragland returns as Sylvester AND his twin brother Chester; creative editing allows the two brothers to interact, and Ragland is one (or two) of the high points of the film. Ann Rutherford is still delightfully scrappy (and sweet), but I missed the sarcastic presence of Virginia Grey. Not "the funniest film ever made", as an old poster proclaims, but funny enough. *** out of 4.

Red Skelton played the radio sleuth known as "the Fox" in three comic mysteries of the early 1940s. All had the word "whistling" in the title.This is the second of the three, and by far the weakest.The first one, "Whistling in the Dark," was an excellent remake of the 1933 film of the same. The last one, "Whistling in Brooklyn," was an extremely enjoyable farce. I recommend both."Whistling in Dixie" can be funny at times, but too often it's boring. I suspect it was made simply because the title seemed irresistible. The phrase "whistling 'Dixie' " was popular American slang at the time. And Ann Rutherford, who co-starred as the Fox's love interest in all three movies, was best known for her role in a Southern epic, "Gone With the Wind."This movie is full of corny "Southern" dialog, and there are some dated portrayals of African-Americans. Nothing here is any more more offensive than what you'd find in the typical 1940s film about the segregated South. But gosh, this kind of stuff was tired even then. Skelton's slapstick routines are weaker than usual. He and Rags Ragland, his sidekick and foil in all three "Whistling" films, work very hard, but some of the material falls flat.If this movie leaves you cold, don't rush to judgment. You may like the other two "Whistling" entries, because they are much better. And if you love this one, you will definitely want to see the other two.