Le Vagabond des Bois Maudits

I haven't seen this film since my parents took my sisters and me to see it when it first came out. I was about six or seven. I thought, given the title, we were going to see an Elvis Presley movie. Even at that age I'd heard so much about Elvis that I was anxious to see it. My parents might have fallen for the deceptive title too as far as I know. I don't recall the movie being really bad (when I was that age i was just happy to go to the movies at all) but I thought the music and the guy singing were awful. I recall thinking that this Elvis guy was awful and I didn't pay any attention to him until a couple of years later when I saw "It Happened At The World's Fair". That was 1963 although I probably didn't see it until 1964. I thought Elvis was a lot cooler than he was in "Hound Dog Man" but again, the music was really unmemorable. A year or so later came "Viva Las Vegas". I don't remember whether I saw that one in the theatre or not but I remember that, thanks to the Beatles, I had been listening to the radio constantly for about a year or so by then and "Return To Sender" was a hit. Wow! That song knocked me for a loop. I couldn't get enough of it. I guess I must have thought the other films were just a couple of bumps in the road because this guy Elvis was GREAT! Around the same time I found out that it wasn't Elvis in "Hound Dog Man" at all but Fabian! I am quite proud of the fact that at only six I could tell that Fabian was a bad actor and an even worse singer.

Looking at the incredible cast of "Hound Dog Man"-Stuart Whitman,Arthur O'Connell, Carol Lynley-I'm thinking it might not be such a bad movie after all. If I could sit through the music I might consider watching it again. But I doubt it.

This film is a wonderful little gem that has not gathered any good reviews simply because it has never been shown or seen by anyone since it's 1959 theatrical release! Not on TV or cable, so it remains a real curio item. The songs are pleasing, the story is simple; no real plot, just a lots of fun with this co-starring cast of old-timers along with the newcomers. Great little characters long the way played to mold the good corn: L. Q, Jones-over the top with one of his early intended humor''in-yor-face hysterics-roles'-breaking his leg after getting thrown by a horse; Claude Akins gets almost trigger happy when he threatens the boys camping fun warning them '' not to have them dogs take to getting his Hogs all chawed-up along the creek"!! There's Jane Darwell in one of her last pictures as a grandma who warns ''of all that liquor flowin' at the barn dance that would will surely cause a ruckus!!'' . AND Betty Field, Arthur O'Connell, and one-hit wonder Dodie Stevens singing at the barn dance, too! I guess you'd have to be among the baby-boomers to identify with this cast, so I guess it's one of those movies that will melt away in memory since it has not been released on video. Films of that wonderful era are getting farther away from us in time- and they will be forgotten simply because all of the old classic stuff has been dwarfed by all of the new-century menu of rapidly-edited super charged items that are no longer MOVIES, to begin with--presented like action-packed video games with awfully bland no-name actors among some who are sometimes animated, anyway! HOUND DOG MAN is simply a lot of CLEAN fun with a great little cast from that era, about two young brothers going on a hunting trip--the time set in the beginning of the last century, Filmed near BIG BEAR LAKE, CA when it was still an uncrowded paradise in 1959. Neat songs, too! But of course you SHOULD like, the not- hard- to- like FABIAN, who went on to co-starring roles at FOX, then more movies and music generating a fabulous career. Don Siegel directed ELVIS next, in FLAMING STAR (1960). HOUND DOG MAN is a Jerry Wald Production. A 20th CENTURYFOX CINEMASCOPE PICTURE, COLOR BY DELUXE.

This is really just some good old country fun, pretty well done. Hound dog refers to a real dog that they took out hunting, and a young fellow wanted to do that when he grew up. You have romantic tangles with Carol Lynley and young Dodie Stevens, who had a hit with Pink Shoelaces at the time. Pleny of singin and dancin, including a rollicking enjoyable barn dance scene. Fabian sings and so does Dodie. The title song was made into a good rock and roll hit, written by the famous Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. Not all the songs are great and I have no idea why This Friendly World got any attention. The picture was wide Cinemascope, but full-screen on TV.