Moonshine Mountain

Welcome to Moonshine Mountain, the coolest thing Herschell Gordon Lewis ever did that didn't involve gore, and even if it did, it wouldn't matter because this light-hearted Carolina exploitation is just fine the way it is. Moonshine Mountain tells the story of a country singer named Doug Martin. Doug is a soft, city boy, so he figures his lyrics, in the future, might mean something if he lives in the hills for a spell. It appears as if all Herschell knows about southerners is what he's seen on The Beverly Hillbillies, because Doug's interactions with some of these people is just classic After settling in "The Hotel", Doug stumbles upon a nice, drunk family, the Carpenters, to hang with and to sing with, and to, hell yeah, drink with. So, Bring on the fire water!! Moonshine Mountain is packed with backwoods such tomfoolery as Barn dances, hangovers, rapes, murders, and you know it!! Hillbilly music. What Moonshine Mountain really has going for it, above all, is good ol' Jefferey Allen, the Mayor from 2,000 Maniacs, that guy is awesome, he really knows how to throw himself into a role, or maybe he just is that guy. Moonshine Mountain also includes Adam Sorg, the killer from Color Me Blood Red, this time he plays the sheriff. Sorg is much better in the other one, although, Moonshine Mountain is much more entertaining, and an all around better movie. Other than 2,000 Maniacs, this might be Herschell's finest work. if for some reason, you end up hating Moonshine Mountain, all I can say is, try out How to make a doll, that might be closer to what your looking for. If you have an appreciation for the south, as well as low-budget cinema, you just might take a liking to this Hixploitation gem. Now, Somebody pass the Grey Goose. 8/10

Country and Western singer Doug Martin (Chuck Scott) grabs his "gittar" and flies down to South Carolina from New York on a journey of musical inspiration but ends up getting caught up with thieving hicks, illegal moonshine production and a sheriff who is only too happy to exploit his position, even to the point of murdering innocent people. I had never heard of this movie before, it was an extra on my blu-ray of "Two Thousand Maniacs", both directed by the Godfather of Gore, Herschel Gordon Lewis. Moonshine is not a horror film, though a couple of mutilated corpses are seen, it is what is often termed a "hicksploitation" movie. The very low budget is obvious, the acting is terrible, etc. Sadly the original negative is lost so the version that I have is pieced together from various prints, the quality at times being very poor. Doug is as dull as dishwater but some of the hicks are entertaining. There are several musical numbers throughout, I enjoyed these but the 84 minutes running time proved hard going, it felt longer. I could only recommend this to die hard fans of either HG Lewis or hixploitation completests. . The credits read "produced & directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis who ought to know better but don't", you have been warned!

Charles Glore stars as Doug Martin, a folk singer / jerk who goes on vacation in backwoods country. He says he's looking for inspiration for his next songs. Anyway, he ends up in a nowhere burg named Stewartsville where, after some exercises in humiliation, he actually comes to like the locale and the folk, including the purty daughter (Bonnie Hinson) of amiable rube Jeb Carpenter (Jeffrey Allen, no stranger to this type of role). He must soon do battle with a crooked sheriff named Asa Potter (Gordon Oas-Heim).

This is pretty typical stuff for independent operator Herschell Gordon Lewis, one of his ventures into "hicksploitation" that doesn't depend on gore / shock value for impact. The characters may be classic stereotypes, and a great many of the performances may not be terribly slick, but this cast still gives this thing their best effort. The picture does benefit from genuine location shooting - this shore ain't shot on no newfangled Hollywood studio backlot. Good atmosphere and a couple of catchy ditties help to keep "Moonshine Mountain" in the HGL tradition.

The bad news is that there really isn't enough story here to justify 85 minutes, so we must wait through a fair amount of padding. Without graphic violence to fall back on, HGL can't keep these proceedings quite as lively as the macabre mayhem in "Two Thousand Maniacs!".

Still, it's not without its pleasures. Oas-Heim was one of the better actors to be found in the HGL oeuvre, to be sure, and he's supremely slimy 'n' creepy as the villain. As an interesting bit of trivia, he's billed under the name "Adam Sorg", which was the name of the character he'd play in the subsequent HGL gore epic, "Color Me Blood Red".

Yeah, this is not the sort of thing one seeks out if they want "quality" cinema, and even as HGL movies go, he'd done more entertaining movies before and after this one. But completists will definitely want to have some likker on hand as they sit down and soak up this Southern-fried trash.

Six out of 10.

In Herschell Gordon Lewis's hicksploitation movie Moonshine Mountain, Charles Glore plays popular folk singer Doug Martin, who travels from New York to the backwoods village of Stuartsville looking for authentic musical inspiration. There, he meets the Carpenters, a family of hillbilly moonshiners who take Doug under their wing after he impresses them with his gittar picking. Meanwhile, Sheriff Potter (Adam Sorg) and his hulking deputy Luther (Harry Hoffman) are up to no good, killing off federal agents who have been poking their noses into Stuartsville's illegal alcohol activity.

There are two main reasons for watching an H. G. Lewis movie: T&A in his nudie cuties or excessive gore in his splatter films. People don't watch his work for great performances, slick direction or brilliant writing. Moonshine Mountain has zero boobs and not much blood, but plenty of amateurish acting, weak dialogue and ham-fisted film-making, making it a real test of one's patience. It is like Two Thousand Maniacs with all of the good stuff taken out and replaced by dreadful music and songs. If that sounds like your jar of moonshine, then quaff away, but I prefer my HGL films with guts (and brains and severed limbs).

2.5/10, generously rounded up to 3 for the amusing credits.

My brother and I first saw Moonshine Mountain 35 years ago. My mother had dropped us kids off to see a "good" movie. After looking at the pictures in the entrance, we decided to go to the B theater and see Moonshine Mountain. What a treat! The characters were great..the scenery great..the music outstanding. We still talk about the girl who sang "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." So what if it was technically lacking? For us poor country kids, who tired of movies of city antics in places we would never know, this movie said it all.I would gladly give my eye teeth to get a copy of that movie today. It developed an addiction for alternative movies from which I hope never to recover.