The Legend of Hillbilly John

I have seen this movie and consider it a gem. I am a fan of Manly Wade Wellman's fiction and found the portrayal of Silver John to be "dead on". Definitely a movie that deserves a release on DVD. While the budget was low, the emphasis on a real and genuine portrayal of Silver John was there. I found this movie to be well acted and genuine...definitely something that people today need to see, given the sorry state of cinema. I saw this film in the early 1980's. It had been released on video tape and a friend, a collector of rare movies, told me I needed to watch it. I had never heard of Manly Wade Wellman, but I instantly became a fan after seeing this movie. That should be incentive enough for anyone to at least want to watch this movie.

A dark magical fantasy based on several of Manly Wade Wellman's stories about a guitar player who wanders across the rural American Southeast, confronting evil magicians, monsters, and perhaps the Devil himself.

The special effects are of only medium quality, even for 1973, and I can only suggest looking past them to the down-home, country-flavored fairy tale being told, woven together from fireside stories and folk traditions Wellman heard and adapted.

It's always hard to put on film what a poetic writer has described - the charm and mystery of Wellman's beloved Carolinan countryside, the old-fashioned courtesies and customs of the mountain people - and this movie does not quite succeed, perhaps because it did not really try. The magical creatures are put in the foreground, and the setting (Wellman's true love) is made a generic Southern backdrop. John in the book is a devout Christian (more, he might could be a friend of Christ); John in the movie is darkly hinted to be a son of the Devil.

My own enjoyment of this movie was very mixed: I felt frustrated by how often and how far the movie fell short of the books, and tantalized more by what the movie *could* have been than by what it *was*, but I'm glad I didn't miss seeing it.

If you also enjoyed the movie and want to see more of the character, read Wellman's "Silver John" books: "Who Fears the Devil?" (or "John the Balladeer"), "The Old Gods Waken", "After Dark", "The Lost and the Lurking", "The Hanging Stones", and "The Voice of the Mountain". There are also Wellman fan sites on the Web.

The stage curtains open ...

Years ago, when I was about 10 or 11 years old (around 1978 or so), my Mom dropped my brother and I off at the local movie theater for a matinee showing of this film. There we sat in the darkened theater, candy and soda in hand, expecting another Walt Disney type movie ... this was anything but. After the movie was done, we walked out of the theater a bit red-faced. It was a story that involved the Devil, a Witch, a pre-historic bird, a magic guitar with silver strings, a boy and his girl who liked to sneak away for a little nookie, and the use of a divining rod. Had my Mom known what we had just watched, she would've been upset to say the least, since our parents did their best to keep us away from such "subjects". When we got into the car and she cheerfully asked how the movie was, we both shrugged it off as "just okay" and hoped she never brought it up again. Truth was, we both loved it and felt like we had just gotten away with something.

We join our hero, simply known as John, in the Appalachian Mountains where he has just finished having sex with his girl, Lily. Of course, in a "G" Rated movie, it is implied, but we got the picture. On the way home, he finds out that his grandfather, also named John, has announced his intention to defy the Devil himself with the use of what he believes to be true silver strings on his guitar. When his grandfather dies, because the strings did not have silver in them after all, he vows to avenge him with his own silver strings. He embarks on a weird journey to seek out the Devil, testing the power of his strings on an ugly bird (just to make sure) before the final showdown.

The film featured folk singer, Hedges Capers (who clearly could NOT act), singing and strumming his guitar throughout the entire story. We were also treated to early sightings of some relatively larger name actors, or actors who would go on to bigger things, such as Denver Pyle, R. G. Armstrong, and Harris Yulin (who outshined them all in his bit role). This film consisted of 4 different stories by pulp fiction author, Manly Wade Wellman, featuring his character, John the Balladeer (otherwise known as Silver John) that were fused together in the movie for the overall story. And, if you've seen this film, it certainly does have that feel to it.

For years, I could never remember the name of this movie, because I wanted to find and revisit it again - and finally, by chance, I stumbled across a copy of it on YouTube. Someone had uploaded a ripped laser disc copy of it to their channel. Smiling from ear to ear, I watched it again tonight for the first time in years, and yeah ... it IS pretty bad. But, it also came with a bunch of sentimentality and memories for me and took me back to a good time as a youth first discovering movies. I had to laugh when I saw what I was so worried about as a kid, but hey ... I was only 10. I would actually recommend this movie, if you can find it. There are a lot worse things you could spend your time doing.

To call this film "oddball" is a bit of an understatement. The story follows a guitar-strumming kook (the titular Hillbilly John) as he roams through the mountains of Appalachia. The episodic tale begins with a quest to vanquish an evil entity who has been menacing the community along with his companion - the aptly named Ugly Bird. About an hour into the story that narrative is resolved and we abruptly shift to a storyline concerning a group of black laborers being taken advantage of by the people who are overseeing their work in a cotton field. Like I said at the beginning: "oddball" is an understatement.

Sorry Merk, but Severn Darden played Mr. Marduke. The wandering folksinger (John, no last name ever given in the movies or the stories.) was played by Hedges Capers. And it wasn't "Dirty Bird" but Ugly Bird (from the short story "Oh, Ugly Bird!' by Manley Wade Wellman. Admittedly, the film isn't the greatest, but the stories and books about Silver John are classics by an author with a genuine love for the mountains and their people and of the folk music of the area.