A Time to Sing

Time to Sing, A (1968)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Predictable and entertaining drama about a young man (Hank Williams, Jr.) who has the talent to write songs and sing them but his elderly uncle (Ed Begley) refuses to allow it. The uncle is holding back a few secrets but a woman (Shelley Fabares) convinces the young guy to enter a few contests to pay the bills and soon fame comes. I think fans of Williams, Jr. are going to be the ones who will mainly want to check this out but people certainly shouldn't expect the singer most people think of when they think of Williams. This early period of his career certainly has him singing and sounding more like his famous father but that's really not a negative thing as I've always enjoyed this period. Williams gets to sing eight different songs here with four of them written by himself. I doubt most people have heard of these songs but we get some pretty good ones including "It's All Over but the Crying", "Next Time I Say Goodbye I'm Leaving", "Old Before My Time" and the title track. Williams stands solo with his guitar and really delivers on the musical side but I also thought his performance was pretty good. One of the problems with the film is that his character is such a jerk and I must say that Williams really does push that jerkiness extremely well. Williams has a certain edge of toughness that really comes across well and a certain hard head that also jumps right off the screen. Fabares is also extremely good in her role of the love interest and Begley is entertaining, if over the top, as the old fashioned uncle. Character actor Donald Woods is also pretty good in his few scenes. The film's screenplay is pretty poor as it's just way too predictable to be entertaining and the big twist about the uncle's secret is rather lame. With that said, fans of country music or Williams will certainly want to check it out.

Country-western singer Hank Williams, Jr., the son of classic singing star Hank Williams, was 19 years old when he starred in this inane, low-budget musical. He portrays Grady Dodd, a farm boy devoid of ideas and imagination who has musical aspirations. With the aid of an overly cute girl (Shelley Fabares) and an overly hip agent Grady makes it to the top, despite the protestations of his reactionary uncle (Ed Begley). The cliched plot, lack of direction and atrocious dialog are but a few of the faults in the unfortunate C-movie. The soundtrack album is a much better bet.

Hank Williams, Jr., next appeared in a bit part in SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1978). The movie career of Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares, who had co-starred with Elvis Presley in three movies, abruptly came to a halt after A TIME TO SING and she retreated back to the relative obscurity of TV work for the next 20 years. In 1962, veteran director Arthur Dreifuss wrote and directed a quality film, THE QUARE FELLOW, starring Patrick McGoohan, but soon after devolved to churning out terrible "youth themed" movies, such as THE LOVE-INS, RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, FOR SINGLES ONLY, and A TIME TO SING for schlockmeister producer Sam Katzman (even Dreifuss' 1990 obituaries omit this movie, their final collaboration). Thankfully, A TIME TO SING has never been released on DVD or digital format.

This movie is a perfect example of idiot plotting: everyone acts like an idiot and the entire plot is motivated because no one ever bothers to ask why a particular individual is doing so.

In this case, the entire plot is actuated by the fact that the Dodd family (Hank Williams Jr. and Ed Begley Senior and, somehow, the very Black D'Urville Martin) are in desperate need of money because the younger one has been singing in public, causing the older one to have a heart attack; hospitals are not cheap. So, of course, to raise the money, he sings some more, and a hullabaloo ensues. No one ever thinks to ask why it upsets Begley, and it takes the first hour of the movie before it comes out.

A good deal of behind-the-camera talent goes into this movie, but that doesn't do much for the proceedings. Of course, Hank Williams Jr. sings fairly often, and that is worth something. But you could toss the rest of the movie and improve it greatly.