The Road to Nashville

Movie studio head Richard Arlen sends Doodles Weaver to Nashville to Nashville to choose acts for the country music movie they're making next week. Lots of stars lip-sync to their hits, form the Stoneman Family to the Carter Family -- who owe a lot of their success to Pop Stoneman discovering them -- who sing "I Walk the Line" and then back up Johnny Cash on a spiritua --l to contemporary acts like Connie Smith. Wherever the songs were actually recorded, about half of the 38 songs are about adultery, and almost every performance has a lot of echo.

The quality of the performances are pretty good, echo aside, and there's some fine banjo picking, and even an electric mandolin. At over 100 minutes, that's too many C&W songs for me, but fans of the genre will be pleased.

'The Road to Nashville' has a paper-thin plot - Doodles Weaver tries to convince top country acts to appear in a film - but some great musical performances from anyone and everyone who was big in that field of music at the time.

So you'll see Johnny Cash, Kitty Wells, Lefty Frizzell, the Carter Family, Waylon Jennings, Marty Robbins, and many more, singing their best known songs in a mix of styles.

As a music revue, this is hugely enjoyable, but just don't expect anything other than a snapshot of Nashville keepers at the top of their game. For what it is, it is great fun and a real treat, if a little dated.

I'm doubting that we're going to get a better DVD of this, and it's too bad. The source material is presented from a crappy looking (and sounding) 16MM television syndication print, and the movie itself was originally presented in nice, wide Cinemascope. The lack of widescreen is blatantly obvious here, as the cinematography is all over the place, as is the pathetically primitive panning and scanning. Now grant it, this film was never out to win any "that sho' is purty!" awards, but this print looks like poop. Combine that with some HORRIBLE DVD Compression artifacts, and you're sure to figure out that you've got a long way to go to get to high def here.

Good thing the content is what it is. RTN was one of a series of "jukebox" movies which were being pumped out of Nashville in the 60's, and these films, while rare to see nowadays, give us great looks into the time that was 1960's-era Nashville. You see vintage acts that were being pushed aside by Chet Atkin's and Owen Bradley's Countrypolitan style which was hot at the time, and you see up-and-comers who are obviously here to get any break they can.

Great clips here are a couple of performances by Connie Smith (although that gold suit she has is a tad, well...dated), Johnny Cash and the Carter Family (showing Johnny in the midst of his downward drug-fueled spiral, but still good enough to pull it off musically), and a young very-pre-outlaw Waylon Jennings doing "Anita".

Even the lesser acts are worth it, like Porter Wagoner's Pre-Parton "Girl Singer" Norma Jean doing "I Wouldn't Buy A Used Car From Him", and The Stoneman Family song "Tupelo County Jail" in stage outfits that look somewhere between the lines of The New Christy Minstrels crossed with Laugh-In. (Both of the above mentioned tunes were minor hits around the time this flick was shot, although the DVD didn't even bother to hunt down the actual title to the Stoneman's tune, giving it the cop-out title of "Write Me A Letter").

If you can get passed the cheap bargain-bin quality of the DVD, the music makes it worth every penny.

This movie is quite maddening in that it is truly a cinematic turkey. (Or is it a turkey in the straw?) The film quality has the quality of a very old print that hadn't been stored very well.

The plot and the acting is... well...uh...no comment.

Back in 1967, this movie was intended to turn the matinée crowd to contemporary country, the way teen-targeted movies bolster record sales of their featured stars (think HOLD ON with Herman's Hermits or HAVING A WILD WEEKEND starring the Dave Clark Five.) This movie has it all, bad plot, bad acting and bad jokes. Yet, for some strange reason, I found myself not only enjoying this guilty pleasure (YEE-haww... OK, Y'all can shoot me for feelin' all th' way Ah do. Shucks.) And as if that wasn't enough, this movie got me going through my record price guides and the internet in wild pursuit of any and all information on the featured artists and their records along with any movies or TV shows they may had starred in.

The movie, in a weird way, it a lot of fun to watch. And the music is classic country.

This movie was a Big Deal when it came to the drive in in Long Beach CA. Lots of happy viewers. We had heard the musicians on records but it was so nice to be able to see them.