Mississippi (1935)

The son of a wealthy Southern family is disowned by them because he does not believe in dueling. He gets a job as a singer on a Mississippi riverboat. After an altercation with a notorious river tough, who gets accidentally shot with his own pistol, the riverboat captain, in order to attract business, bills him as "The Singing Killer." Product Description

I'm glad someone sells this on DVD!

First off, it's a DVD-R, region 0, it's not a manufacturer's DVD, zero extra's, reasonably cheap CD case photo. My rating of 3 star is due to this alone and not the quality of the movie or transfer which are both very good.

That being said and out of the way I'm happy as a clam to see a good transfer of Mississippi on DVD finally. I have a copy I made off digital cable a few years back with an S-VHS tape recorder and although that copy is very good, this DVD is much better. Not sure what their source material was but the picture is very clear, sound is very good too. Pausing the opening titles shows no artifacts around the titles edges which a low quality copy will always have.

Moving on to the movie itself, this is a rarely seen Fields movie that is very, very good. Bing Crosby takes some of the stage away from W.C., but W.C.'s parts are great. His story about "carving his way through a wall of human flesh" and the resulting fainting woman is classic Field's. This DVD seller also has Field's Tille & Gus and If I Had A Million on DVD.

Hopefully Universal or whoever has the rights to the official release of the yet to be released to DVD Field's movies will get Mississippi, Tillie and Gus, Million Dollar Legs, & Her Majesty Love all out soon on a third Field's collection as well as the following bit part Field's movies: Tales Of Manhattan, Alice In Wonderland (1933), Song Of The Open Road, Mrs. Wiggs Of The Cabbage Patch, Sensations Of 1945, Follow The Boys as well as the silents The Old Army Game, Running Wild & Sally Of The Sawdust(uncut please, I have it uncut on tape it should be 124 minutes, NOT 113,110, or 92 minutes as most tapes/DVD's are).

Overall another great Field's movie that I heartily recommend for your viewing pleasure.

January 5, 2008

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