Las Vegas Hillbillys

Mamie Van Doren is so attractive, this silly film is worth the watch with the added bonus of Jayne Mansfield. Nothing to write home about, this goofy romp with songs is a strange combo of Beverly Hillbillies humor and rockabilly-type music. Ferlin Husky as the slow-witted lead and a whole slew of strange character actors.

A 4 out of 10. Best performance = Mamie Van Doren. The color is this is very strange and there many skin-crawling performances, but Mamie as Boots Malone is terrific. It's hard to describe this, but it's a fun time if you like Gilligan's Island. Jayne Mansfield had sure come down a lot in her career, but people have to work.

In THE LAS VEGAS HILLBILLIES the great Connie Smith sings close to the camera and she looks very beautiful, but her physical beauty is surpassed by her voice and singing abilities which are the best ever recorded by any female singer. She is not very famous today because she quit show biz in 1980 to raise her kids.

The other singers in THE LAS VEGAS HILLBILLIES are very good especially Del Revees when he sings "Women Do Funny Things to Me." This is an honest movie because it delivers what its name implies: good sixties real country music inside of a silly movie.

The music in THE LAS VEGAS HILLBILLIES is wonderful because the music from the sixties came from the people through DJs who could play the music that they liked. In contrast to today where the situation is inverted. Almost all the radio stations are owned by a few giant corporations, and every song aired must be approved by corporate managers. Today singers are selected by the corporations for airplay for their looks and youth and not their ability to sing. At least female country singers back then sang without showing off their belly buttons.

Some of the singers in THE LAS VEGAS HILLBILLIES such as Connie Smith who still retain fully their singing abilities are now trying to get their songs aired and are foiled by the corporate monopoly ownership of radio. Back in the sixties country singers, songs, and fans were for real. They did not put on airs, pretend to be somebody else, or take themselves too seriously. They were even humorous. In stark contrast to most of today's singers who are just corporate products that produce horrible music.

I'm a huge fan of both country music and Jayne Mansfield, so I really looked forward to seeing this one. And yet I really wasn't all that impressed with it. The main criticism is that there was WAY too much of the music, and way too little of Jayne, if that's possible. For the most part the music was decent enough, with a couple of clunkers thrown in for good measure. After a few songs this starts playing like a kind of American Idol of the mid-60s country music scene. I got the feeling they were trying to pad the length of the film, because if you cut the music sequences it would run about 17 minutes. The whole thing looks improvised because there probably wasn't much of a script. The pie fight sequence at the end is just plain lame. The performers do an 0k job, and can't really be faulted. All are well-cast. I'm neither hot nor cold on Mamie VanDoren but I liked her in this. The biggest let-down is Jayne, who for all her star billing doesn't really do a lot here. She only has a handful of scenes and could easily have phoned her part in. If she were edited out completely it would have changed nothing of the overall story. Not her fault tho, it's not like she had much help from the script. Her performance in the Big Bopper spoof is a hoot and easily the movie's bright spot. Too bad she couldn't have had a couple more numbers, or maybe even been in a couple more scenes. I don't dislike this movie, but I'd only recommend it for country music fanatics, and fans of Jayne and Mamie. 0therwise beware!

This B-Movie has an all-star cast, and it's about a backwoods hillbilly named Woody Weatherbee, (you never really know his last name!) he and his family inherit a casino in Las Vegas from his dead uncle. And they use it to their advantage to try to make it big in Vegas. This B-Movie is utterly annoying without a doubt, lame!

The scene where Woody sings, "Feel Better All Over" when he sings it, he looks like he's getting shot and having a dirreaha attack at the same time! This movie is just a kelidascope of senselessness and stupidity. Yet, this movie tends to be comical in an infamous way. It makes you feel sorry for Jayne Mansfield and the other all-star cast members for even participating in this ridiculous monstrosity of a B-Movie.

Another thing that makes the movie so stupid is it's stereotypes about Southern people being backwoods hillbillies. The dialogue was cheesy and lame as the songs in this movie that it just might give you an anyerism while watching! One of the stupidest scenes was when we see Woody running out of his gimpy-looking car that looked like a pile of garbage shouting, "Aunt Clam! Aunt Clam!" Be warned! MST3K would've had a field day mocking this movie! Believe me, it's that bad!

In a sense, LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS is worse than most of the worst horror films. First of all, this movie(an obvious rip on the BEVERLY HILLBILLYS)is so lame, so dreadfully photographed and directed that one feels bad for the audience who paid to see this in the theater. Second of all, one must wonder how desperate Mamie Van Doren and Jayne Mansfield were to get a paycheck to be in this film.

We open with some backwoods moonshiners, including Ferlin Husky, blow up their still accidentally. Then, news comes from Las Vegas that Ferlin has inherited a casino. So Husky and his pals pack up their things and move to Las Vegas. Nevada, that is. Washed-up movie stars, untalented country-western singers. Now all that's missing is Mrs. Hathaway and Jethro.

And some humor. This so-called comedy is so painfully unfunny that I wished I was watching one of those dumb Ernest movies again. Jayne Mansfied shows up as the manager of Husky's casino, and Mamie Van Doren is all but unrecognizable. (although not as bad as she was in THE NAVY VS THE NIGHT CREATURES) And the endless bumpkin music made me nauseaus.

I disliked LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS because, in the end, you realize how much contempt the makers had for their audience.(By the way, who was the audience for this mess?)

Ferlin Husky, along with Joi Lansing, made a semi-sequel to this film the next year, HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE. That film is just as dull, pointless, and filled with poor music. If you like one, you're bound to like the other, just for pure awfulness. All others beware, this film is UNCEASINGLY BAD.