My Hero

Original title: A Southern Yankee

1948
U
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

548

YOUR RATING

Arlene Dahl and Red Skelton in My Hero (1948)

Play trailer2:15

1 Video

16 Photos

Slapstick Comedy History War Western

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.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

548

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 2:15

A Southern Yankee

Photos16

+ 9

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
No 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.

Goofs
Mention 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 . .

Connections
Featured in The Big Parade of Comedy (1964)

Soundtracks
Oh! Susanna
(uncredited)
Composed by Stephen Foster (1848)
Instrumental version used as leitmotif under titles ad sung briefly by Skelton and Dahl.

User reviews23

Review

Featured review

6/10

Better than You'd Expect

I remember Red mostly from TV in the 50s. To my knowledge I had not seen even one of his films until this one a few years ago.

I found it amusing and well worth the viewing time.

It's also in something of a counterpoint to most of his TV sketch comedy which was too broad and pointless to me even as a child.

One of the interesting features of this film was that it was set in the American Civil War and was mostly a comedy. The film was produced in the late 40s (I think) in a period when most - if not all - Civil War films were completely dramatic ("Gone with the Wind" had a few pointedly amusing lines from Rhett Butler but was a serious film.) The Civil War by then was some 80 years in the past, but the South was still very much the South, so to lampoon the South in any way (even if also the Union received comic dusting) would seem to me as quite a stretch by the producers. Like they were willing to write the South off their distribution lists.

Bottom line, Red was much better than I can ever remember seeing him and that alone was worth it.