Sixteen

Sixteen is the kind of film I used to see when I did Army Reserve training in such places as Fort Polk, Fort Stewart and Fort Knox. I guarantee that this filom did nit have a New York showing.

Meet the Irtleys a most rural Georgia family with parents Ford Rainey and Mercedes McCambridge as parents with kids John Lozier, Simone Griffeth and Buddy Foster as the kids. One fine day the family takes a trip to Valdosta to see a carnival playing there. They return minus Lozier and Griffeth both of whom have had some bitter romance happen to them.

As you can see this is based on State Fair. But all three versions of that classic were better than this film. How such veterans as Rainey, McCambridge, and Parley Baer playing a fake preacher and Maidie Norman as a neighbor got roped into this is beyond me. I can't believe that it was for a trip to rural Georgia.

For some titillation there is a nude swimming scene with Lozier and Griffeth. Hard to believe then they'replaying brother and sister. The Code was gone by then.

As for the romance t worked out better for the kids in all 3 State Fair films.

This here is a low budget gem. I won't spoil the story,you'll have to watch it ! Let's just say a sweetly naive,very poor country family go to the state fair and things get rocky. Funny in oh-so-many ways,my words cannot do it justice. The music ranges from cringeworthy to bad to pretty darn good,there is quite a dichotomy and range in the music. You just gotta see it !

Well, I have never seen this movie, but I know something about it as well. It was filmed on my family's property in South Georgia. My cousin was held by the lady that played the mother in the movie. My mom told me my great grandparents were not happy when they heard that there were nude scenes being shot in the creek and it was between a "brother and sister." The creek and pond or whatever was/is our land. My aunt bought this movie to see if you could see my grandfather's mill house, but I don't think she was successful. It is really neat that my family was part of this movie, but it is sad that the movie was so bad and so trashy. My family is nothing like the family depicted in the movie and it really upset them that the movie portrayed people from the South in that manner. I just wanted to add my two cents in.

If you see on the trivia section how much this exploitation borrows from the classic semi-musical STATE FAIR, that's because I wrote that, and this...

In the 1945 classic, a hick family goes to a fair where the virginal teenage sister falls for an exciting and confident older fella, while big brother falls for a pretty woman who works as an entertainer there... at the fair...

Trade in a singer for a stripper, and a newspaperman for a motorcycle daredevil and here it is: What's basically a remake, and all the exploitation relies on the gorgeous titular SIXTEEN year old sister played by Simone Griffeth, an extremely gorgeous girl... as was Jeanne Crain, by the way...

Not bad for what anyone would consider bad with the low budget and all... Has the pace of a drive-in flick, and some nudity and sex to wake up the audience, as intended, who went for just that...

The setup has the family getting a nice payday, and the townspeople trying their best to separate them from it...

SIXTEEN did have more tiers than just the teenage blonde, but wound up with pretty much her and her only. After all, it's HER movie. Although there is more action with the stripper, trying to pry into the family money while, also like STATE FAIR, has a jealous boyfriend. Seriously, this IS a remake, no matter what it says, or doesn't say.

Poor Mercedes McCambridge. She must have been starving to make this movie. I see some reviewers have "trashy"appearing to be one of a criticism that makes a movie bad for them. Trash is not necessarily bad. Terrible writing, acting, and directing make a movie bad. All three are here. I was watching as I was doing other stuff so I'm sure if I had sat down to watch a movie I would have left it. (Watched on Prime.) if ever a movie deserved a 1, this is it. If my momma was in it I would give the same rating.