MISSISSIPPI (1935) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: A. Edward Sutherland
Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields, Joan Bennett,
Queenie Smith, Gail Patrick, Claude Gillingwater
The Great W.C. pilots a showboat down South, past plantations where happy darkies sing "Swanee River" and Bing croons along with them. Fields and Crosby divide the screen time about equally, and while the results are all right, it's not the best thing either of them ever did. The racial stereotyping might be a product of its time, but the time is long gone. At least there's nobody in blackface.
