The Wild McCullochs

Max Baer, Jr. produced, directed, and had a role in The Wild McCullochs who might be better classified as dysfunctional rather than wild. Julie Adams and Forrest Tucker head the clan with children Don Grady, Janice Heiden, Dennis Redfield, and Chip Hand.

Most of the film is a combination of Dallas and The Last Picture Show. Forrest Tucker runs a trucking company and he's the Jock Ewing of the local area in Texas. Max Baer is one of his drivers and is courting his daughter Janice Heiden which doesn't sit well with Tucker. Oldest son Don Grady is a chip of the rough old block. He joins the Air Force just in time to get sent to Korea. The other two sons have issues which quite frankly are not brought out too well in the script. Especially Redfield whose main problem just seems to be he won't grow up.

The film looks like it could have been a failed TV pilot. Quite frankly the characters were just not interesting enough for me to care. And while those other two items that I cited are the basis for most of the film, the rather wild climax was completely ripped off from The Quiet Man.

It didn't become a TV series for good reason.

First off all the other ratings were done nearly 30 years after the movie was made. Of coarse it is not going to hold up to standards in the era of 2002 - 2012. This was Max Baer Jr. first attempt at directing with help from actors he knew and done for a very low budget. It is not a block buster movie, but it is entertaining and has an awesome cast. I think you have to give a little credit to Mr. Baer for even attempting this. I do not see any of the critics attempting a movie. As the matter of fact the only attempt i see from them is sitting on their duffs watching a movie and pretending to be a professional at judging ambitions. I liked this movie and thought it was alright in a 1975 sort of way. I will admit that I am a bit partial to The Wild McCullochs. After all I did have a cameo with Don Grady in the Jeep!

Following his long run as Jethro Bodine on "The Beverly Hillbillies", Max Baer Jr. Tried to create a new career for himself as a director. Unfortunately, the results weren't especially distinguished and he apparently was typecast as Jethro. One of Baer's attempts to create a new screen image is "The Wild McCulloughs", where he not only directed by wrote and acted in the film.

The film project is unusual in regard to its casting. Many familiar faces from the 1950s-70s are in the movie...mostly people who, like Baer, were typecast and were having a difficult time finding work. Forrest Tucker ("F Troop"), Julia Adams* ("The Creature from the Black Lagoon"), Don Grady and William Demarest ("My Three Sons"), Mike Mazurki (who played in a million movies and TV shows), Vito Scotti ("McHale's Navy"), Harold J. Stone (who played angry men as well as any actor) and Baer all are main characters in the movie. None of these are exactly stars....but are nice familiar faces to people familiar with their work.

J. J. McCullough (Tucker) is a the tough-as-nails patriarch of the family. As such, he's great with his fists and being tough and controlling...but also is inept at instilling other values in his nearly grown kids. Tenderness and gentleness are NOT in his repertoire...and the film shows how this eventually impacts negatively on the family.

One thing I noticed early on in the film was the language. While I am not exactly a prude, I noticed all the cursing...which, I assume, was Baer's attempt to pull away from his clean TV image since he was sick of being known for "The Beverly Hillbillies". This doesn't harm the film any...but it is noticeable and you might feel surprised at how earthy the movie is at times.

So how is the movie? Well, a lot better than I expected! After all, it's overall rating is currently 4.9...which would indicate it is a bit of a stinker. However, it's basically a good story and is worth seeing. Perfect? Far from it...but overall it's a decent film even with a poor ending (such as it being awfully similar to "The Quiet Man" as well as a few unnecessarily cheesy moments during this ending sequence)...which tended to deflect from the film's main message about masculinity.

*Throughout her career, Adams was often billed as Julia or Julie interchangably. I'm not exactly sure why.

Maz Baer Jr.'s directorial debut certainly isn't what you would call impressive. He also wrote, produced and co-starred in this pointless film.

J.J. McCulloch is the rich owner of a trucking company. He believes that most disagreements should be handled with your fists. His poor parenting causes a lot of strife in his family and results in tragedy.

The main selling point of "The McCullochs" in its trailer is that it features one of the finest brawls ever captured on film. That speaks volumes about the mentality of this movie.

Watching several poorly executed fights and listening to the McCulloch clan be miserable isn't exactly my idea of entertainment. 1/10

I had no idea that men were wearing their hair long in 1949, or that a Texas Catholic family would still have enough southern pride to hang a confederate flag in the den, or that William Demarest still thought that stupid red wig was fooling people in 1975.

Inconsistencies and anachronisms aside, Max Baer's debut as director (he was screenwriter/producer/star only on MACON COUNTY LINE) is a fun little low-budget flick, a family melodrama with the same pacifist leanings he expressed in MACON COUNTY LINE.

Forrest Tucker is at his blustery best as a two-fisted Texas millionaire, a self-made man who began as a trucker but fought his way to the top, eventually owning his own trucking company and putting his name on everything in the county. Max Baer plays his employee and nemesis, for he is dating Tucker's teenage daughter.

Baer's hairstyle is the single most glaring anachronism. The odd mix of 1950s and 1970s fashions is straight out of middle-year HAPPY DAYS.

The best sequence is the terrific fight that closes the film, as Tucker and Baer duke it out in a long sequence that apparently the entire town has been expecting for quite some time!

The primary joy is the opportunity to watch a lot of old pros really put on a show: in addition to Tucker and Demarest, we get Vito Scotti, Harold J. Stone, Don Grady, Julie Adams, Billy Curtis and Mike Mazurki rounding out a great cast. Easy to watch and easy to forget. 6/10.