One of Field's finer cinematic moments as Commodore Jackson, Mississippi Riverboat Pilot. In the first twenty minutes he regales his adoring lady riverboat traveler on his younger days as an Indian fighter of the infamous 'Shug' Indian tribe. When he happened upon a tribe of these fierce Shugs' while portaging his canoe in one hand and carrying a rocky mountain goat in the other. He unsheathed his Bowie knife and drew his revolver...which hadn't been invented yet, but the Shugs' didn't know that, then 'carved his way through a wall of human flesh, dragging his canoe behind him!' The elderly widow said: Commodore you must have been full of fire in your youth!---Fields replies: Why I had to carry fire insurance until I was forty! Funny Fieldsian humor... Bing makes his appearance as a scorned suitor who was sent packing from his fiancée's house because he wouldn't fight a duel over her. He takes a job on the Riverboat as a singer, where he gets into a fight to the death of a rival riverboat pilot, Capt Blackie. Whence Fields now renames Bing...Colonel Steele, the Singing Killah! Bing sings some great songs...Old Folks Home, Me and the River, Easy to Remember, so very hard to forget...music from Rodgers and Hart.
Joan Bennett plays the younger sister of the fiancée, who is in love for Bing/Tom/Col Steele for what he truly is, not what people think he should be. Gail Patrick, plays Elvira, Bings fiancée, who is one gorgeous woman. I believe she played Carole Lombard's older sister in My Man Godfrey...just a beautiful face.
CAVEAT
Fun movie, but some objectionable material referring to slaves, lyrics in the song The Old Folks Home, the film was set in the Pre-Civil war south. In one scene, Fields pushes a black carriage driver by mistake. In practice he treated all races the same, and several times he publicly added his voice to the call for racial equality.
Joan Bennett plays the younger sister of the fiancée, who is in love for Bing/Tom/Col Steele for what he truly is, not what people think he should be. Gail Patrick, plays Elvira, Bings fiancée, who is one gorgeous woman. I believe she played Carole Lombard's older sister in My Man Godfrey...just a beautiful face.
CAVEAT
Fun movie, but some objectionable material referring to slaves, lyrics in the song The Old Folks Home, the film was set in the Pre-Civil war south. In one scene, Fields pushes a black carriage driver by mistake. In practice he treated all races the same, and several times he publicly added his voice to the call for racial equality.