Surprisingly incoherent and boring

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

My title is partially derived from one of the TV episodes of "Julia": a parody of Bing Crosby's hit song from "Holiday Inn", released the year before this film.....It is indeed ironic that "Dixie", as well as most of the other songs that have come to be associated with the antebellum South, were composed by two staunch Yankees: Dan Emmett and Stephan Foster, and mostly for Yankee minstrel shows. Unlike the story in this film, I could find no info that Emmett ever traveled into the South, and Foster made only one trip into the South, by steamboat to New Orleans, rather reminiscent of the scene early in this film when Crosby and a chorus of African Americans sing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot". This scene also reminds us of some of the scenes in Jerome Kerns' "Showboat". Emmett is also credited with being the inspiration behind the first full-fledged blackface minstrel show, in 1843. As in this film, this consisted of 4 men. However, in the film , the silly excuse for using blackface is to cover up their blackeyes from a brawl. Blackface routines had been around in the US since early colonial days, and in medieval Europe. Emmett was primarily a singer and instrument player, and had used blackface in his routines in circuses before this time. In the long interval between '43 and '58, he did not perform in minstrel shows, serving as a musician in various other capacities. Emmett composed "Dixie" in 1859, while a member of a NYC minstrel group. Initially a hit in the North, it was modified into a band piece and war song for the South, with many different lyrics. As in the finale, a performance in New Olreans did spark its popularity in the South. Unlike in the film, where he refuses to sell the copyright for $1., he sold it for $500. to a NYC firm. The fictitious bit in the film where Emmett is given $500.by his prospective father-in-law is perhaps derived from this bit of history.Although this is supposed to be a biographical treatment of Emmett, nearly all the details are totally fictitious, and nearly all the other songs were either new creations for this film, or 19th century songs composed by others! He had two wives, but they certainly weren't southern belles, as portrayed, one being from NYC and the other from Chicago, and they weren't competitors. The plot construction is a switcheroo romantic quadrangle: a very common plot formula in musicals of this era. If we substitute Fred Astaire for Billy De Wolfe and Vrginia Dale for Dorothy Lamour, we have essentially the same romantic melodrama as in "Holiday Inn" of the previous year. In both films, Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds end up a romantic couple in the finale. Dorothy is portrayed as a shameless hussy of a southern belle, whereas Marjorie is portrayed as true to Emmett, but offering to step aside for Dorothy when she discovers that Emmett planned to ditch her for Dorothy until he discovered that she had become partially paralyzed from polio, She surmised that he married her only out of pity. Incidentally,paralytic polio was a rather common and much feared disease when this film was made, exemplified by President Roosevelt. But, back in mid-19th century, it was a minor disease, and mostly of infants and young children, very rarely adults.This was the film debut for comedic character actor Billy De Wolfe, and he almost steals the show in the middle half, before mostly disappearing in the last portion.He essentially takes the place of Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, Martha Raye or Betty Hutton in Crosby's films of this era. He would help to enliven "Blue Skies": the second and less entertaining pairing of Crosby and Astaire.The film fails to convey the fact that his character's name: Mr. Bones, was a stock character in minstrels, originating from the use of 2 bones as a crude castanet. Mr. Bones was also one of the main characters in the extensive minstrel show in "Babes on Broadway".The 3 building fires served as a running gag, each supposedly started by Bing forgetting his lit pipe. Must have had some gasoline-soaked tobacco in that pipe! The first 2 fires served to end one phase of the film, while the last serves as an excuse to speed the tempo of "Dixie", and to destroy Marjorie's now unwanted letter of proposed divorce.This film is notable for the large amount of blackface entertainment. I have no problem with that. To me, it's no different from other forms of stage, film and circus clowning around, including all those 'white face' circus clowns. Historically, AAs often participated in such minstrel shows post Civil War. The NAACP is far too uptight about any public entertainment that portrays AAs in the stock negative characterizations of minstrel shows, early films, and the 'Amos and Andy' TV show, which was one of my favorite shows as a kid. Unfortunately, TV executives overreacted to criticism of the characterizations in this show and cancelled all shows dominated by AAs, including Nat Cole's show.Finally, in the late '60s, "Julia" was tried. It was the first sitcom to present AAs as legitimate middle class Americans, but was criticized for presenting an atypical AA characterization. The characters were said to be essentially 'whites with black faces' and Ms. Carroll was a light-skinned AA, thus a compromise AA.See this film on You Tube, in 9 segments. Rating: 2 for historical accuracy, 7 for entertainment value.

Boy, that was a tough slog getting through all the history lessons and moral instruction regarding slavery. Yes, yes, it was a shameful period in America and minstrel shows were degrading, but most contributors forgot to evaluate "Dixie" - the movie, that is.Well, let me have a bash at it. When I think back on "Dixie", the first thing I think of is the ballad, "Sunday, Monday or Always", done to perfection by Bing at the beginning and at the end. Much of the rest of the movie is forgettable and uninspired. Paramount had assembled an excellent cast which is largely wasted in this fictitious biography of a forgotten songwriter. Maybe the biggest disappointment was the lack of spectacle and excitement in musical number after lifeless musical number, especially the last one. The choreography was almost non-existent and very understated, except for a dance by the largely wasted Eddie Foy, Jr. The script was desperately in need of a re-write - and what's with the fires? There were three separate fires in the course of "Dixie", one of which should have included Dorothy Lamour's thankless part.I guess musicals were not Paramount's thing. Such matters were best left to Fox or MGM, or even Universal, which had a few pretty good underbudgetted musicals. Our present rating is a little rich for "Dixie" - I gave it five and upped it to six on the strength of the song "Sunday,Monday or Always", which was gorgeous.

All of these reviews read like essays by high school kids competing with each other to gain the favor of their teacher who made them watch this movie, and then write an essay about how evil minstrelsy was. Extra credit for the most anti-minstrelsy.From the synopsis I read of this movie (I haven't seen it, but I'd like to) it would appear it has almost nothing to do with the real Dan Emmett, or the real cultural environment of the country during the time period covered, so there's no point in looking to the movie for insight into minstrelsy. Instead, it appears the reviewers looked elsewhere on the web, and found the most biased, least informative stuff they could find on minstrelsy, and cut and pasted it into the reviews.Folks, Minstrelsy was by far the most popular form of entertainment for a CENTURY in the US. Only the circus came close. Do you really think that minstrelsy was all about one thing, and it was always the same thing to the majority of the population for over a century? It is a shame that discussion of minstrelsy has been so suppressed that it has allowed these attitudes to grow up around it. Now there is a great deal of scholarly discussion, and the researchers have a sophisticated grasp of what was really going on. Most of this information hasn't trickled down to us yet.Imagine if somebody said that all of rock music is about one thing - stealing from and making fun of blacks. Mick Jagger was aping black people to make fun of them. Some people might agree with that, but they would be wrong. Or if they said rap music is about one thing - hating whitey.As wrong-headed as those assessments would be, it's 10 times worse about minstrelsy, which was a much bigger phenomena than rock and rap put together. Minstrelsy was about mockery, and mimicry. About admiration, and hate. it was whites pretending to be black, blacks pretending to be Chinese... there were many stock characters in minstrelsy, and everybody played everybody. Some of it was about hate and distrust, some of it was about finding a way to get along. In 1943, they were already looking at this stuff through filters, though if Al Jolson was out of blackface by then, it was only be a little bit. Now we have different filters. Don't take other people's word (including mine), look at it for yourself. But spend some time with it. Sure, the first thing you will see is the caricature, and it will appear it was all about degrading at hate. But the more you look, the more you will learn.

DIXIE (Paramount, 1943), directed by A. Edward Sutherland, capitalizes on the then current trend of musical biographies of popular songwriters of the twentieth century, a cycle that appeared to have begun with the life of George M. Cohan in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (WB, 1942). Unlike this and others made during this period, DIXIE goes back a century, prior to the Civil War in fact, depicting the life of a composer named Daniel Decatur Emmett. His life-story is as unknown as his name itself. The fictional screenplay does toy with the facts before leading to the purpose of its film title, the composition that's to become Emmett's most recognizable American song of all, "Dixie." Bing Crosby, one of Hollywood's top box office attractions, is properly cast as Dan Emmett. It reunites him with HOLIDAY INN (1942) co-star, Marjorie Reynolds, and re-teams him opposite Dorothy Lamour, in her only film opposite Crosby outside from the seven "Road to" comedies all featuring Bob Hope as part of the funny trio.Dan Emmett's life is portrayed more to the personification of Çrosby himself, that of a good-natured singer/composer whose only weakness is his forgetfulness, especially when it comes to leaving his lit up smoking pipe around that causes a fire. He is engaged to Jean Mason (Marjorie Reynolds), a beautiful blonde Southern belle whose father (Grant Mitchell) disapproves of their courtship because he feels Dan to be irresponsible and won't amount to anything. Mason's more convinced now after Dan's lit-up pipe has caused the burning and destruction of Mason's old Kentucky home. However, Mason consents to Jean's marriage only if Dan can prove himself capable by doubling his $500 life savings to $1,000 within six months. (A similar opening lifted from the more familiar Fred Astaire musical, SWING TIME, in 1936). Leaving his clerical job, Dan seeks his fortune in New Orleans. While riverboat bound, he loses all of his $500 to Mr. Bones (Billy De Wolfe), a suave actor and cardsharp. After discovering that he had been cheated, he sets out to find Mr. Bones. Instead of beating him for the return of his money, composer and actor form a partnership leading to the origins of what was to be known as a Minstrel Show. Dan, who has already encountered Millie Cook (Dorothy Lamour) at the boarding house to whom Bones and other out-of work actors (Lynne Overman and Eddie Foy Jr.) owe back rent for their lodgings to her trusting father (Raymond Walburn), finds himself in love with her, in spite that she's the aggressor who made the first move. Dan decides to return to Kentucky and break his engagement to Jean. Upon his return, Dan finds the girl he once loved to be a victim of a crippling disease, polio, that puts him in a difficult situation as to which girl he should marry, and which should get his swan song.Oddly enough for a life-story about a composer, one would expect a handful of selections by Emmett himself, however, with the exception of "Old Dan Tucker," and "Dixie," many were by others, new ones by James Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. The motion picture soundtrack includes "Sunday, Monday or Always," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," (both sing by Bing Crosby); "Kinda Peculiar Brown" (sung/performed by Eddie Foy Jr. and Lynne Overman); "Old Dan Tucker," "The Last Rose of Summer," "She's From Missouri," "Let the Minstrel Show You How," "Kinda Peculiar Brown" (dance number); "The Horse That Knew the Way Back Home," "If You Please," "Sunday, Monday or Always," and "Dixie." While "Dixie" is the song in question, "Sunday, Monday or Always" is the film's most romantic ballad, and one of many most associated with Crosby. The Lynne Overman and Eddie Foy Jr. number early in the story is another highlight.So is it true, as depicted on screen, that the birth of the minstrel show was due to white actors acquiring black eyes in a fight to cover up their bruises by darkening themselves up with cork? Hard to tell since minstrel shows have become part of American culture that remains to be a controversial issue. How much is true about the Mr. Bones character as portrayed by Billy DeWolfe (in his screen debut) is another issue. His amusing scenes, however, come off quite well, at best when cheating at cards, and, in a sense, tasteless, when obtaining a free meal in a restaurant by placing a cockroach in his food before being nearly finished, then complaining the "incident" to a waiter. The result to this colorful production finds Crosby satisfying, as always; Reynolds quite sympathetic; DeWolfe, Overman and Foy comical delights; with Lamour leaving a lasting impression long after the finish of the film as she joins in with other proud southerners singing to Emmett's immortal song of the south, "I wish I was in Dixie, hooray, hooray!!!" in full camera closeup.Less dramatic than composer Stephen Foster's interpretation in SWANEE RIVER (1939), each film has benefited from its lavish Technicolor. During the sequence depicting Emmett's Virginia Minstrels as the troupe performs in an opera house to a sophisticated audience, where the song, "Dixie," is to be introduced, a patron (Norma Varden) observing the show quips about the show to be of "such poor taste." Due to extensive use of minstrel show numbers recapturing that bygone era from which this film is based, is the sole reason why DIXIE hasn't aired on television since the 1980s. A video copy, however, was obtained by a private collector from which this review is based. How DIXIE succeeds or fails if seen today depends on the individual viewer. (***)