Dixiana

Name: Dixiana
Director: Luther Reed
Genre: Comedy, Music, Drama
Released: 1930
Duration: 1 h 40 min
Cast: Bebe Daniels, Everett Marshall, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Joseph Cawthorn

1930 Comedy Music 100 minutes Directed by Luther Reed

About Dixiana

Circus performer Dixiana Caldwell loves Carl Van Horn and goes with him, and with the comics Peewee and Ginger, to his family's plantation. The engagement party collapses when her circus past comes out and Carl's stepmother tells her to leave. Back in New Orleans the circus will not rehire her. She works in Royal Montague's gambling house. He means to use her to ruin Carl. At Mardi Gras, when she is queen, Montague takes her. Carl challenges him. Dixiana appears in Carl's place, tricks Montague into admitting the plan, and is reunited with Carl.

Cast & crew

More about Dixiana

Luther Reed directed and adapted Anne Caldwell's story. J. Roy Hunt photographed it. Harry Tierney composed the songs. Victor Baravalle conducted. Max Steiner orchestrated. The last twenty minutes are Technicolor. RKO released it on 1 August 1930. Bebe Daniels plays Dixiana. Everett Marshall plays Carl. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey play Peewee and Ginger. Bill Robinson makes his film debut as a tap dancer.

Themes

A circus past that breaks an engagement
A gambler with a plan
Mardi Gras as the trap
Bebe Daniels
Bill Robinson
New Orleans
Technicolor
RKO
Wheeler and Woolsey

Background

A pre-Code musical set in antebellum New Orleans, released in the first year of RKO's feature musicals.

Making

RKO spent the color budget on the Mardi Gras finish. Robinson was brought in for the dance, his first appearance in a feature.

Look

J. Roy Hunt shot the film. The final twenty minutes switch to Technicolor for the Mardi Gras sequence.

Technique

Two-color Technicolor restricted to the last twenty minutes.

Music

Harry Tierney wrote the music. Max Steiner orchestrated. Victor Baravalle directed the music.

Notes

Robinson's debut is a dance specialty, not a speaking lead.
Jobyna Howland plays the stepmother Birdie. Joseph Cawthorn plays Cornelius Van Horn. Ralf Harolde plays Royal Montague. Dorothy Lee plays Poppy.
Only the closing reel is in color. The rest is black and white.
Steiner's credit is orchestration, not the songs. Those are Tierney's.

Scenes

Peewee and Ginger let the plantation party learn that Dixiana works in a circus.
Robinson dances.
Dixiana, disguised, draws the confession out of Montague.

Also available

Internet Archive (Dixiana1930)