A hapless bellboy in a St. Louis hotel near the end of the Civil War is recruited by the Union secret service to impersonate a notorious Confederate spy.A hapless bellboy in a St. Louis hotel near the end of the Civil War is recruited by the Union secret service to impersonate a notorious Confederate spy.A hapless bellboy in a St. Louis hotel near the end of the Civil War is recruited by the Union secret service to impersonate a notorious Confederate spy.
- Mr. Duncan
- (scenes deleted)
- Male Nurse
- (scenes deleted)
- Capt. Jeffreys
- (scenes deleted)
- Dr. Clayton
- (scenes deleted)
- Major
- (scenes deleted)
- Bartender
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaNo one could figure out a simple, yet funny way to get Aubrey out of the house when he was being held captive by the angry dog. Buster Keaton, employed by MGM as a roving gag man, was called to the set, looked at the set up, and came up with the idea of removing the door hinges and letting the dog in as Aubrey got out. The most famous gag in the movie took Keaton all of five minutes to devise. Buster also contributed other gags some of which he'd done himself years earlier.
- GoofsMention of prisoner exchange is mentioned by the colonel. Prison exchanges were stopped by Grant in 1864, the first union commander who realized the road to victory lay through attrition.
- Quotes
Col. Clifford M. Baker: The paper's in the pocket of the boot with the buckle. The map's in the packet in the pocket of the jacket. Understand?
Aubrey Filmore: Hmm?
Col. Clifford M. Baker: And if you get them mixed up, you're a dead goose.
Aubrey Filmore: Oh, well let's see now. The paper's in the pocket of the macket with a jacket, and the . . No, I see, the packet's in the . .
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Big Parade of Comedy (1964)
- SoundtracksOh! Susanna
(uncredited)
Composed by Stephen Foster (1848)
Instrumental version used as leitmotif under titles ad sung briefly by Skelton and Dahl.
Red Skelton plays Aubrey Filmore, a bumbling hotel bellboy in 1865 St. Louis, who spends most of his working hours tracking down imaginary spies among the guests. Aubrey's bumbling pays off one afternoon when he accidentally knocks out a guest who turns out to be a legendary Confederate spy called the "grey spider". His good fortune continues when a southern belle, Sallyann Weatherby (Arlene Dahl) mistakes him for the spider. Wanting to exploit these events, the Union secret service gives him phony plans to pass along to the enemy and instructions to pass along to another union agent behind enemy lines. Predictably Aubrey gets the two packets of information mixed up and places the union agent and himself in jeopardy.
"A Southern Yankee" is quite funny if not especially noteworthy, the cast is solid and the production design of good quality.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
- aimless-46
- Apr 21, 2006
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,482,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1