Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater

Absolutely brilliant

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Typical Red Skelton fanfare, this time it's 1865 and Red is a bell-hop at a local St. Louis hotel. He seems obsessed with tracking down spies and his opportunity comes when he accidentally captures one and assumes his identity.Skelton gets more than he bargained for when he does this. He is recruited by the Union Army to go behind southern lines to pass on certain information.He meets his southern spy in partnership played by a wonderful Arlene Dahl and the two fall for each other. Brian Donlevy, as the heavy, wants Skelton out of the way so that he can resume his relationship with the Dahl character.The film is fun to watch, but it's basically some basic civil war antics routinely observed.

I own all of Buster Keaton's silent films and who doesn't love Red Skelton? Having said that, this film stinks. Keaton helped write the film, which is probably why critics were reluctant to criticize it. However, the fact is that is was not funny. It was stupid, particularly in the first half hour. By then, it probably lost a number of viewers who watched this on VHS in the 1990s, as I did. (It was released on tape in 1994.)This film also had the presence of Brian Donlevy, Arlene Dahl, John Ireland and more....all good actors....but the dialog was just d-u-m-b. Maybe this was funny in 1948, but I guarantee you the laughs aren't there almost 60 years later. What made people laugh back in the '40s doesn't always work today and they will probably say a similar thing 60 years from now.Still, it's tough to knock the comedic talents of Red Skelton. If anyone a generation later could equal Keaton in silent comedy bits, it would be Red. He demonstrated that every week on his television show. After that terrible start, the film got better and it was fun seeing the bumbling bellboy (Skelton) do something right, for a change, but I just think overall the humor of the '40s doesn't cut it today. Sorry.

Red Skelton shines in this funny stereo-typical movie from the forties. All in all, the movies feels as though it was written for Bob Hope whom I personally dislike in the movies. Skelton and Hop both used double entendres and fast quipped one-liners to good effect. The funny plot includes a union hotel bellhop who mistakenly finds and captures the most dangerous spy of the confederates during the civil war and is asked by superiors to impersonate him because if he were caught, it would not matter, he being dispensable. So start the laughs and they come at a minute a dime including a classic scene at a hospital involving a chase and a couple of dentists. Brilliant. Arlene Dahl does what she does and that is look extremely beautiful. It is said Buster Keaton worked behind the scenes on this movie and some have compared it to the General but I don't see the resemblance. The movie it most resembles is Bob hope's The Paleface, a scathological spoof of genres as this movie is. When you get to see it, have fun.

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.