A Southern Yankee (1948 MGM)

Story: St. Louis - 1865 at the Palmer Hotel. Aubrey Filmore (Red Skelton) is a bellboy day dreaming of catching southern spies. Told to knock on doors for wake up call. Talks to Col. Baker and tries to join his special service. Col. Baker gets word that the "Grey Spider" is coming to St. Louis. He decides to dress up as a civilian. Aubrey is looking for the Grey Spider and see someone in grey and follows him. He lost him but finds another person in grey. He tries to capture him and finds out it is Col. Baker.
Aubrey is sent to delivery clothing to a Maj. Drumman. He finds the room empty and plays with the hat. He finds a hidden pocket in the brim. It has a note to the Grey Spider. He finds someone in the hall with a bathrobe for help. The person happens to be Maj. Drumman. Drumman wants Aubrey to where the clothing and make people think that Aubrey is the Grey Spider. Drumman give him a special ring. Aubrey is able to knock Drumman out by accident. He hears a knock on the door and someone is singing "Oh, Susanna". It is Sallyann (Arlene Dahl) a southern spy. Aubrey takes the role of the Grey Spider to find others spies. He finds that they have northern battle plans. Col. Baker wants Aubrey to keep on being the Grey Spider to give the south false plans. This sets up a classic gag about papers in the pocket and the boot with the buckle.

Sallyann has been going with Kurt Devlynn but now she is falling in love with Grey Spider. Kurt finds out that the Grey Spider has important papers. He hires a raiding party to get the papers. The raiding party dress up as Yankees and chase after Aubrey. Aubrey thinks that they are real Yankees and tell them he is a spy with important papers. The raiding party is chased off by Confederate soldiers.



Buster Keaton was a gag writer for the film and many gags were from his films. Most compare it with "The General" because it is set in the south. But there gags from "Our Hospitality". In "The General" he did were both uniforms. In "Our Hospitality" he did have a chase scene where he had to dress as a woman then put the clothing on a animal to fool the people chasing him. This was used in "A Southern Yankee" but it was not a remake of the Keaton movies.
Note: In the film Aubrey said his age was 26. Red was 35.
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