Whistling Dixie

Directed by Jacob T McClean

2024

Son of Gillean Productions

The bright big city lights and red carpet of Hollywood are combined with its sleazy underbelly in a brand new film from Midlands director Jacob T McClean.

Taking its cue from the 1930s style, this black and white short sees a riff on the stereotypical and well-known tale of a small-town girl heading to L.A. to seek fame and finding out it’s not all glitz and glamour.

Here we get Oklahoman Betty Murphy (Abbie May Wilson) who meets a film producer (Josh Vinten as Frank Anderson) and straight away we witness him tailoring, and manipulating, her to suit the requirements of the studio system.

From the outset, the filmmaker has chosen very much the techniques from the era to take us back to the golden age of cinema. The black and white cinematography combines well with some jaunty piano and the opening credits really look the part. (It’s also one of the few short films where opening credits are even relevant to be fair).

A 4:3 old-style aspect ratio, rear projection car shots and the American accents also show they’ve very much done their Hollywood homework.

The theatrical staging of the shots work too, but some use of close-ups, cutaways and handheld camera break the period illusion and I felt a bit more added film grain would have helped sell the visuals even further.

The story continues however with Betty asked to alter her name by the studio mogul, before it takes an even darker tone as she is “prescribed” pills to help (force) her to lose some weight.

Her name change to Dixie Donay (an alliterative play on Marilyn Monroe perhaps) and the body shape issues (akin to Judy Garland’s Wizard of Oz experiences) appear to ape career moments from those two famous starlets.

The film is a little unoriginal, obviously taking its influences from dozens of stories covering similar subject matter. Ones closer to the period like Sunset Boulevard, as well as more recent fare like Babylon.

Michel Hazanavicius‘ The Artist (2011) also covered this ground but perhaps Whistling Dixie has more in common with David Fincher’s Mank (2020). This utilised black and white visuals and some staples of the genre but wasn’t a slave to “copying” the exact style of a movie from the era.

Whistling Dixie even leaves the monochrome palette behind towards the end with another Marilyn Monroe inspired set-piece. We in fact shift to colour and get a full sultry musical number, which was an unexpected but satisfying expansion of the film's style.

Made on just a £100 budget that came from his own pocket, it’s a brave choice for a Leicester filmmaker to tackle so much, but being so different in style helps make it stand out against the many contemporary drama shorts.

And whilst the idea of the casting couch and a “boulevard of broken dreams” is hardly unique, there’s enough loving homage to maintain interest. It even poses a kind of mini-Mulholland Drive-esque question at its conclusion too.

It throws a lot at the wall, and the majority does stick, so even with a few rough edges and having a slightly over-worn tale, Whistling Dixie is a celluloid success with a lot of heart for the period style - but it also wisely questions the very grubby antics of this less-than-golden era.

★★★½

3.5 / 5

Mike Sales